Page 8 - AfrOil Week 13 2020

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil
 The value of the deal has not yet been disclosed. Conex said in a statement, though, that it hoped to complete the transaction in about six months.
The company went on to say that it intended to continue operating the service stations it had acquired under the Total brand name for two years. Additionally, it said it would retain the Total subsidiaries’ management and staff and would use the same industrial and wholesale channels to secure its fuel supplies.
The agreement with Total will allow Conex to expand its business and market share and create new jobs in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, the statement said.
“This transaction represents a unique oppor- tunity for Conex to become a market leader in the fuel marketing business in West Africa with specific emphasis on the Mano River Union, [as] Total Liberia and Total Sierra Leone [have] lead- ing positions as vendors of fuel in the aviation
industry,” it noted.
Cherif Abdallah, the chairman and CEO
of Conex and its subsidiary Conex Petroleum Group, said the deal was in line with efforts to promote entrepreneurship in Liberia. “Our hope is that this achievement will encourage and motivate other Liberians to move in and begin the job of developing our private sector,” he was quoted as saying in the company statement. “It is time for local actors to actively participate in their economies.”
Conex Oil & Gas Holdings is headquartered in Liberia and also operates in Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Additionally, it has established offices in the United Arab Emir- ates and Switzerland. The holding company is fully owned by Liberian investors and has pro- vided capital resources, management teams and other forms of support to the companies it has acquired. ™
Conex operates in Liberia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone (Photo: Conex)
PERFORMANCE
Sylva: Nigeria will raise oil output in the short term
NIGERIA
NIGERIA intends to raise oil production fol- lowing the lapse of the OPEC-plus agreement on March 31, according to Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
In the short term, Sylva told Bloomberg last week, the West African state will continue to sell as much oil as it can at a significant discount to Brent.
“For the time being, discounts will con- tinue, as that’s the only way we could react immediately,” he said. “We also want to pump everything that we can pump. That’s how we are coping with the situation right now.”
He cautioned, though, that Nigeria would not be able to take this approach indefinitely. If oil prices remain strongly bullish, he said, the country may have to take unprofitable fields offline.
“We are taking a very close look at all the pro- duction streams,” he told Bloomberg. “Any one which is not producing profitably will be shut down.” He did not say which fields might have to halt production.
Nigeria is not the only oil producer to respond in this fashion to the expiry of the OPEC-plus deal, 
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