All articles in the Farm in, Farm Out Section:

Italian explorer ENI is making progress as the sole developer of the massive Baleine discovery it made in Block CI-802 offshore Cote d’voire in 2021.

But the company is open to having a partner with good money to farm in and share the costs.

ENI has an 83% stake in Block CI-802, with state-hydrocarbon company Petroci, being carried with 10% equity.

The Italian giant has not openly declared the need for farminee, but the ultimate cost of the deepwater development at over $10Billion naturally calls for a well-heeled, get-along partner, even when the development is a multi-phased activity for which the funding is provided in bits.

ENI is fast tracking the development with first oil targeted for the second quarter of 2023. The first phase envisages a fast-track subsea tieback to the Firenze FPSO, which will produce from three subsea wells in 1200 metres of water, with oil exported by shuttle tanker and gas piped to thermal power stations in the Ivory Coast..

A full-field development will involve many more subsea wells probably tied back to a bigger production facility, perhaps a bigger FPSO or a shallow water fixed platform.

An appraisal cum exploration drilling was successfully delivered in August 2022, boosting reserves, according to the company, by 25% to 2.5Billion barrels of oil and 3.3Trillion cubic feet of gas. It is not clear if these are ultimately recoverable reserves or contingent resources.

A partner choosing to take a 40% equity in the project will be funding up to $5Billion of the project. Analysts put the cost per barrel at a low $4.2 and NPV10 at a $1.2Billion. The 40% farminee will be entitled to at least 300Million barrels of oil and 400Billion cubic feet of gas.

Italian major ENI has achieved the closing of its acquisition of BP business in Algeria, the company says in a release.

The transaction, the company explains, “has been approved by the competent national and antitrust authorities”.

The assets are the British explorer’s equity in the two gas-producing concessions “In Amenas” and “In Salah”, which are jointly operated with Sonatrach and Equinor.

The In Amenas Gas Project, commenced production in 2006, and by November 2021, had recovered 84.42% of its total recoverable reserves, with peak production in 2009, which was approximately 21.27 thousand Barrels Per Day (BPD) of crude oil and condensate, 870Million standard cubic feet per day (87 MMscf/d) of natural gas and 28,000BPD of natural gas liquids. The field, as of November 2021, was now expected to recover 159Million Barrels of Oil Equivalent (159MMBOE), comprised of 36.61MMbbls of crude oil & condensate, 466.32Bscf of natural gas reserves and 44MMbbls of natural gas liquid reserves.

The In Salah Complex conventional gas field, which commenced output in 2003,  recovered 49.15% of its total recoverable reserves, with peak production expected in 2023, according to market data published by Offshore technology website as of December 2021. The peak production will approximately 880MMscf/d of natural gas. Based on economic assumptions, production will continue until the field reaches its economic limit in 2062. The field currently accounts for approximately 4% of the country’s daily output.

Italian major ENI has announced the closing of Snam’s acquisition of a 49.9% of the equity interest directly and indirectly held by ENI in the companies operating two groups of international gas pipelines connecting Algeria to Italy.

Snam S.p.A. is an Italian energy infrastructure company.

The scope of the transaction includes the onshore gas pipelines running from the Algeria and Tunisia borders to the Tunisian coast (TTPC), and the offshore gas pipelines connecting the Tunisian coast to Italy (TMPC) [1].

These ownership interests were transferred by ENI to a new company (SeaCorridor S.r.l.), of which Snam has acquired 49.9% of the share capital, while the remaining 50.1% continues to be held by ENI. ENI and Snam will exercise joint control of SeaCorridor under joint governance arrangements.

Snam paid ENI a total consideration of about 405 million euros in the transaction [2].

“The transaction leverages ENI’s and Snam’s respective areas of expertise in gas transport on a strategic route for the security of Italy’s natural gas supply”, ENI says in a statement, “enabling potential development initiatives within the hydrogen value chain also thanks to the natural resources North Africa has to offer. The North Africa – Europe link is a key element of progressive decarbonisation at the international level in support of the energy transition.

“The transaction has obtained the authorisations envisaged under antitrust legislation and so-called golden power legislation, consent from the Tunisian government as well as the approval of the shareholders and corporate bodies of the various target companies”.

By Sully Manope, in Abuja

Industry regulator issues a no-holds- barred directive on Beneficial Ownership Register

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission NUPRC has issued a requirement to “all entities that apply for or hold a participating interest in an exploration or production oil and gas license, lease or contract (“relevant persons”) to provide information of their owners, including the identity(ies) of their beneficial owner(s), the level of ownership and details about how that ownership or control is exerted”.

With this announcement, the regulator, as empowered by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), has waded into the Beneficial Ownership issue, taking the initiative from the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

The Transparency watchdog had, in its last report (2020), lamented that companies were not responding to its call to them to provide the relevant information.

NEITI noted that it had designed a Beneficial Ownership Data template to collect information from companies. Copies of the template were sent to all the covered companies and only 32 companies provided all the information required in the templates. “11 companies did not provide any information on beneficial ownership while 26 did not provide complete information, most especially the owners (natural persons) of the companies”, NEITI says in that report, which is now two years outdated. “Most of the companies that submitted BO information provided the required attestation by a senior management officer or senior legal counsel of the company as to the validity of the information provided”.

The NUPRC declared in an end of year statement: ”all relevant persons are hereby required to provide the information of persons with significant control over them”.

The regulator describes a “person with significant control” as one who:

1. • directly or indirectly holding at least 5% of the shares or interest in a relevant person;
   • directly or indirectly holding at least 5% of the voting rights in a relevant person;
   • directly or indirectly holding the right to appoint or remove a majority of the directors or partners in a relevant person;
   • otherwise having the right to exercise or actually exercising significant influence or control over a relevant person; or
   • having the right to exercise, or actually exercising significant influence or control over the activities of a trust or firm, whether or not it is a legal entity, but would itself satisfy any of the first four conditions above if it were an individual.

NUPRC also says that the information shall be provided using the BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP DECLARATION FORM

The upstream regulator says: “All current holders of participating interest in an exploration or production oil and gas license, lease or contract are hereby required to fill the BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP DECLARATION FORM and send to the Commission at bor@nuprc.gov.ng not later than seven (7) days from the date of this notification.

“All entities that henceforth apply for participating interest in an exploration or production oil and gas license, lease or contract shall also be required to fill the BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP DECLARATION FORM and submit with their application.

“Notice of change in persons in significant control over a relevant person shall be provided by the relevant person within 30 days of the change using the CHANGE IN BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP DECLARATION FORM”.

Angola’s largest homegrown E&P firm, Somoil, has agreed to increase its equity position in one acreage, even as it waits for government approval to acquire stakes in three others.

Somoil will purchase the 2.5% interest belonging to Indonesian state hydrocarbon company PTTEP in TOTALEnergies operated Block 17/06 project offshore Angola. Completion of the sale is expected by mid-2023, subject to the conditions prescribed in the sale and purchase agreement (SPA).

Somoil currently has at least 10% stake in each of six blocks, including 2/05, 3/05, 3/05A, 4/05, 14, FS/FST, all of them producing assets. Block 17/06, which is the seventh is under development.

Somoil’s net daily output in these properties collectively ranges from 10,000BOPD to 15,000BOPD, an outlying performance among Angolan indigenous players.

Somoil is currently, in partnership with Sirius Petroleum, in the process of acquiring, from state owned Sonangol, participating interests of 8.28% and 10% respectively in Blocks 18 and 31 (producing blocks) and a 25% participating interest in the exploration Block 27, for a total consideration of $335.5Million.

If that deal, which is far gone, is consummated by mid 2023 as anticipated, Somoil will have a position in 10 acreages in Angola, eight of which are producers.

Neither Somoil, nor PTTEP has disclosed the sum for which Somoil will purchase PTTEP’s  2.5% participating interest in Block 17/06. What’s clear is that the Block is host to the Begonia oilfield, currently under-development by French supermajor TOTALEnergies, who is the operator. Located in water depths of up to 750 metres, Begonia will be exploited as a subsea tie-back to TOTALlEnergies’ Pazflor floating production, storage and offloading vessel on adjacent Block 17. The Begonia project, which is expected to cost $850Million, will deliver about 30,000 barrels per day of crude.