Page 12 - AfrOil Week 23 2022

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

Impact Oil & Gas mulling sale of

20% stake in major Namibian asset

NAMIBIA SOUTH Africa’s Impact Oil & Gas is reportedly
mulling the possibility of selling its 20% stake in
Block 2913B offshore Namibia, which contains
the massive Venus-1x discovery.
Four industry sources told the Reuters news
agency earlier this week that the privately owned
company had hired Jefferies Group, a US invest-
ment banking company, to serve as its advisor
for the sale process. Impact has asked Jefferies
to draw up plans for the sale, which may yield
$500mn to $1bn, they said.
They indicated that the company was taking
this step even as it was holding talks with inves-
tors in order to raise $100mn to cover its share
of costs for the appraisal drilling programme Block 2913B is within the PEL 56 licence area (Image: TotalEnergies)
at the Venus field. Work on that programme is
due to commence in August, according to Pat-
rick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies (France), looking forward to participating in the Venus
the operator of Block 2913B. The French major appraisal programme later this year,” said the
and its partners had originally planned to begin spokesperson.
appraisal drilling later in the year, but Pouyanné TotalEnergies announced the discovery of oil
announced last month that the start date had at Venus-1x in February of this year. The field
been moved up. was initially estimated to hold 300-500mn bar-
Reuters’ sources, who were not named, rels of light crude, but the figure now looks to
did not reveal whether Impact had identified be closer to 1.5-2.0bn barrels, high enough to
any potential buyers or whether it expected to make Venus the biggest discovery in sub-Saha-
launch the sale before concluding financing ran Africa in several decades.
talks. Jefferies, for its part, did not comment on Equity in the project is split between TotalEn-
the matter when contacted by the news agency. ergies, the operator, with a 40% working interest;
Impact, for its part, said it would not respond QatarEnergy, with 30%; Impact, with 20%; and
to media speculation about its future plans. It National Petroleum Co. of Namibia (NAM-
also quoted a company spokesperson as say- COR), with 10%. Impact’s shareholders include
ing in a statement that it expected to continue South Africa’s Hosken Consolidated Invest-
working at Block 2913B. “We are currently ments and Canada’s Africa Oil Corp. ™

PERFORMANCE
Libya’s largest oilfield resumes production

LIBYA PRODUCTION at Sharara, Libya’s largest oil- Libya’s main oilfields and export terminals
field, resumed on June 6 after several weeks of have witnessed repeated closures as a result of
shutdown, according to local sources. protests, political power struggles and other
Sharara, located in the western region of disruptions. Protests have also erupted over
the country, is able to pump up to 300,000 demands for a fair distribution of oil revenues
barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. However, it among all regions, and production has been sus-
has been producing below capacity while pro- pended multiple times as workers’ wages have
testers demanded that Prime Minister Abdul- not been paid on time.
hamid Dbeibah step down from his post for The state oil and gas concern, National Oil
newly sworn-in Prime Minister-designate Fathi Corp. (NOC), declared force majeure in April
Bashaga. As of June 4, it was estimated to be after widespread protests led to the closure of
yielding 180,000 bpd. multiple upstream sites, including Sharara.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 08•June•2022