Page 13 - AsianOil Week 02 2021

AsianOil NEWSBASE’S ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) AsianOil

Pushing ahead with plans

Companies and countries alike are taking steps forward with various oil and gas
plans, though some continue to tread carefully in uncertain market conditions

COMMENTARY WELCOME to the latest edition of NewsBase’s Last week, Senegal’s government reported that
Roundup Global (NRG), in which our team of BP and Kosmos Energy were on track to begin
international editors provide you with a snap- extracting natural gas from the Grand Tortue/
shot of some of the key issues affecting their Ahmeyim (GTA) block in 2023, which extends
regional beats. Get the NRG Oil & Gas Editor’s into the maritime zone of neighbouring Maurita-
Picks to your inbox every week for free. Just sign nia. Oil Minister Sophie Gladima told Bloomberg
up here. that the field would help Dakar support gas-to-
There were signs of progress on various oil and power projects and other economic development
gas plans around the world in recent days, while oil efforts. She also stressed that Senegal did not intend
prices rose, buoyed by Saudi Arabia’s pledge to cut to use its newly discovered hydrocarbon resources
production by 1mn barrels per day (bpd) above its to gain entry to OPEC or other international indus-
current quota in February and March. try organisations.
Progress on new production projects has been Gladima’s comments came shortly after FAR
reported by countries such as Senegal. Meanwhile, Ltd (Australia), a member of the joint venture that
two companies have pledged to work together to is developing Senegal’s offshore Sangomar block,
promote, identify and develop new opportunities revealed that it was pushing the date of a share-
in Bolivia’s hydrocarbon and renewable energy sec- holders meeting back by four weeks to February
tors. Iran is also on a drive to raise its production, 18. FAR’s shareholders are due to discuss the com-
and has committed nearly $3bn to the endeavour. pany’s plans to sell its minority stake in the RSSD
In North America, however, shale drillers have joint venture to operator Woodside Energy (Aus-
said they will proceed with caution regardless of tralia) at the meeting, but they need more time to
higher oil prices, calling for restraint in order to help discuss a takeover bid by Remus Horizons, a pri-
bring about a more lasting oil recovery. vate investment fund. Remus’ bid of AUD209.6mn
($161.6mn) for 100% of FAR is contingent on the
Africa: Senegal heading for 2023 latter company’s retention of the RSSD stake within
Looking ahead, 2023 is set to be a pivotal year its portfolio.
for Senegal, which will see two major offshore Both GTA and Sangomar were originally
blocks begin production at that time. due to start production in 2022. However, the

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