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AfrOil
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrOil
INVESTMENT
Sound Energy seeks
partner for Morocco’s
Tendrara gas facility
UK-based gas firm Sound Energy is currently seeking a co-investing partner to fund the sec- ond phase of its Tendrara gas project onshore Morocco, the firm said in a statement on August 9.
Sound has a remaining $60mn worth of development costs net to its 75% interest in Tendrara. The new partner is also expected to enhance exploration in the Greater Tendrara and Anoual permit areas in the north eastern part of the country.
Upon the announcement today, Sound has launched the formal farm-out process for the second phase of the Tendrara gas project.
Sound also said it is further considering a $250mn long-term debt facility for the main financing of the second phase of Tendrara. In June this year, the firm agreed on Attijariwafa Bank’s plan to set up the facility with a maximum duration of 12 years.
Sound Energy holds 75% interest in the Tendrara gas drilling permit, while Morocco’s National Bureau for Hydrocarbons and Miner- als (ONHYM) holds the remaining 25% interest.
In November last year, Sound Energy agreed a binding 10-year deal to supply gas from the second phase of its Tendrara project. The deal would see up to 350 mcm per year supplied to Morocco’s state-owned utility ONEE. bna/IntelliNews, August 9 2022
PERFORMANCE
Nigeria: Unplanned
LNG plant outages
prove costly for IOCs
Traders of LNG have been forced to pay over the odds to fill up European storage facilities after unplanned outages around the world caused prices to spike, Mining Weekly has reported.
As a whole, traders have taken hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in preparation for the high-demand European winter.
Disruptions at plants in the US and Australia have caused major companies like BP and Shell to pay higher prices for alternative supplies of energy.
There have also been disruptions in Nigeria, where the country’s huge LNG export termi- nal on Bonny Island has seen a rapid decline
in output as a result of a shortfall in natural gas supplies. Much of this is due to theft and the sab- otage of pipelines throughout the West African country.
In July, Nigeria LNG Ltd revealed that its plant is only producing at up to 68% of its capac- ity, mainly due to the theft of crude oil and vandalism of pipelines. Nigeria LNG (NLNG) is a consortium owned by state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPC Ltd), along- side Eni (Italy), Total (France) and Shell (UK).
According to Mining Weekly, at current prices, an average cargo of LNG would cost around $100mn in the spot market.
However, despite rising costs, the increased outlay has been mitigated by ever-increasing profits for energy giants. In July, Shell revealed that it had made record profits for the second quarter in a row, on the back of soaring oil and gas prices.
bna/IntelliNews, August 10 2022
Sasol buoyed by high crude oil prices
Sasol, a South Africa-headquartered global energy and chemicals group, has released a financial update for the year ended on June 30 that highlights an outstanding performance.
The performance was underpinned by a favourable macroeconomic environment, higher crude oil prices, refining margins and chemicals prices amid a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tensions.
“This resulted in a strong gross margin improvement from the prior year, combined with robust cost and capital expenditure perfor- mance,” the Johannesburg- and New York-listed company said in a release on August 4.
“These benefits were partly offset by opera- tional challenges in our integrated South African
value chains which resulted in lower production, as reported in the annual business performance metrics published on [July 25].”
According to the statement, Sasol’s adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the 2022 financial year are expected to increase by between 36% and 56% from about $2.9bn in the prior year, to between $3.9bn and $4.5bn.
“This is mostly due to a strong recovery in Brent crude oil and chemical prices, partly offset by realised oil hedging losses and lower chemi- cals sales volumes,” it said.
Sasol produces and markets a range of high-quality products including liquid fuels, piped natural gas and chemicals in 22 countries across the world.
bna/IntelliNews, August 8 2022
POLICY
NCDMB, ICPC inaugurate new anti-corruption unit
The Nigerian Content Development and Mon- itoring Board (NCDMB) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have inaugurated a six- man Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) committee at the Nigerian Content Tower in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
The Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Simbi Kesiye Wabote in his welcome address commended the Chairman of ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owansanoye, SAN, for sustaining the laudable initiative of extending the anti-corrup- tion and transparency crusade to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)sby creating the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) in each organisation.
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