Page 10 - AfrOil Week 36 2021

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

The sources, who spoke on condition of was discovered at the block in 2014. RSSD has
anonymity, stressed that the talks between estimated that its licence area contains 645mn
Woodside and OVL might not result in a sale. barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable reserves,
The proposed transaction is still under discus- including 485mn barrels of crude oil and 160mn
sion, and Woodside may entertain offers from boe of natural gas. It hopes to begin production
other potential investors, they said. They did not in 2023. ™
say whether any other companies had expressed
interest in joining RSSD.
Woodside became the majority shareholder
in the joint venture last year, after Cairn Energy
(UK) announced plans to sell its minority stake
to Russia’s Lukoil. It pre-empted that deal,
thereby bringing its holdings up from 35% to
about 75%. The only other shareholder in the
joint venture is Petrosen, the national oil com-
pany (NOC) of Senegal.
Subsequently Woodside acquired another
minority stake in the project from FAR Ltd,
another Australian company. In July of this
year, it made a final payment of approximately
$126mn for FAR’s holdings, which consisted of a
13.67% stake in the Sangomar Offshore field and
a 15% stake in the other two sections of RSSD’s
licence area.
The Sangomar licence area includes three
separate fields – Rufisque, Sangomar Offshore
and Sangomar Deep Offshore. Together, these
sites give the RSSD joint venture its name. Oil The Sangomar block holds about 645mn boe (Image: FAR)

PERFORMANCE
Sonatrach CEO forecasts company’s

revenues at $30-33bn in FY2021

ALGERIA ALGERIA’S national oil company (NOC) 28mn toe. Hydrocarbon imports were down by
Sonatrach is expected to report revenues of as much as 81% year on year in 2020.
$30-33bn for the current fiscal year, according In reaction to market conditions, Sonatrach
to Toufik Hekkar, the government-owned com- reduced its investment and operating budget by
pany’s CEO. 35% and 13% respectively in 2020. Investments
Algeria’s hydrocarbon output was down by made by the flagship company were down by
6% year on year to 176mn tonnes of oil equiva- 30% to $5.7bn in 2020. ™
lent (toe) for the full year 2020, largely due to the
North African country curbing hydrocarbons
output in compliance with agreed upon produc-
tion quotas with OPEC+ member countries. As
a result, revenues generated from the export of
hydrocarbons plunged by 39% year on year to
$20bn, in line with reduced output and a huge
oil price crash in the initial phase of the coro-
navirus (COVID-19) health pandemic in the
second quarter (April-June) that only gradually
improved during the rest of 2020.
The average price of Algeria’s Sahara Blend
fell by 35% in 2020. Algeria total sales of hydro-
carbons during 2020 were down by 7% year on
year to 140mn tonnes of oil equivalent (toe), of
which 81mn toe were exports. Domestic refin-
ery production was up by 7% year on year to Sonatrach reduced its investment budget in FY2020 (Photo: Sonatrach)

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