Page 8 - AfrOil Week 27 2021

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

He stressed, though, that the company’s foreign in some of these [offshore] blocks,” said the
partners have been “tolerant” of its inability to banking source.
uphold investment commitments and have He was referring to the NOC’s announce-
even accepted its share of production in lieu ment last month that it intended to sell up to
of payment on some occasions. Such arrange- 8.28% of Block 18, 10% of Block 15/06, 15-20%
ments have benefited all sides, since “declaring of Blocks 3/05 and 4/05, 30-65% of Block 5/06
a default would put Sonangol in a non-voting and 30-70% of Blocks 23, 27 and 31. All eight
position within the concession, and when you’re of these blocks are located in Angola’s offshore
dealing with a host country, that is very delicate,” zone, in depths ranging from shallow-water to
he added. ultra-deepwater. Two of these sites – namely,
Nevertheless, he said, the total sum owed has Blocks 3/05 and 4/05 – are already in production.
continued to climb and probably now tops $1bn, According to one of Reuters’ sources, these
including interest. sales may raise as much as $2bn. Sonangol said
The mounting arrears appear to be one of the last month that it hoped to use the proceeds of
factors underlying Sonangol’s recent decision the divestment programme to cover the remain-
to sell off stakes in a number of offshore assets, ing share of its investment commitments at the
according to Reuters’ sources. Non-payment sites in question and to cover its expenses on
“has boosted Sonangol’s process of divestment other projects. ™

Qatar Petroleum takes 25% stakes

in three blocks offshore South Africa

SOUTH AFRICA QATAR Petroleum has arranged to expand its
co-operation with TotalEnergies (France) in
South Africa’s offshore zone by participating in
the exploration of three additional blocks.
The Qatari company unveiled its plans at the
weekend, saying in a statement dated July 4 that
it had arranged to acquire minority stakes in
three blocks with the French major. QP will take
a 25% interest in South Outeniqua, a 29.17%
interest in OBD and a 30% interest in DWOB,
the statement explained. This will bring TotalEn-
ergies’ holdings in the three blocks down to 75%,
48.61% and 50% respectively.
South Outeniqua lies off the southern coast
of South Africa in the Outeniqua basin, cover-
ing an area of about 49,000 square km in waters
ranging from 200 to 5,000 metres deep. It lies
directly to the south of Block 11B/12B, where
large volumes of natural gas and gas conden-
sate have been discovered at the Brulpadda and
Luiperd fields. TotalEnergies is leading work at
Block 11B/12B, and QP is one of the non-oper-
ating partners in the project.
Meanwhile, the OBD and DWOB blocks lie
off South Africa’s western coast in the Orange
basin, covering a combined area of about 53,000
square km in waters ranging from 1,000 to 4,200
metres deep. The northern edge of DWOB
extends to the maritime border between South QP is acquiring stakes in blocks that are adjacent to its other assets (Image: QP)
Africa and Namibia and is adjacent to Blocks
2912 and 2913B in the latter country’s offshore CEO, expressed satisfaction with the acquisi-
zone. QP is already a non-operating partner in tions. “These acquisitions represent an excellent
these two Namibian blocks and has announced addition to our South African regional upstream
plans to acquire stakes in two additional nearby portfolio and build upon the positive progress
licence areas known as Blocks 2913A and 2914B. following the recent drilling success in the
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, QP’s president and 11B/12B block,” he said. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 27 07•July•2021