By Toyin Akinosho, in Abidjan
But the Dallas based major does not produce natural gas anywhere close to its peers
ExxonMobil’s net crude oil output in Nigeria in 2014 averaged 298,000BOPD, the highest liquid hydrocarbon volume credited to a single company in the country in the last year.
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Merger with BG extends the supermajor’s footprint on the continent
By Toyin Akinosho, Publisher
A significant part of the portfolio that Shell will inherit with the acquisition of BG consists of natural gas production in Egypt and Tunisia, with 10% and 5% of the latter’s global output.
The $70 Billion merger is the headline news of the moment. If the transaction is completed the way it stands, it would yield up six operated acreages, four of them producing 94,000BOEPD, in North Africa.
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By Paul Kelechi
Egypt plans to list three of its state petroleum companies on the Cairo and Alexander Stock Exchange in the second half of 2015.
If it happens, it will be the second time in 10 years that a state hydrocarbon company has gone to raise money in the stock market.
Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) for Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR), the joint stock company; Gas Cool, the state company for refrigeration by natural gas and PetroNeel, the joint stock petroleum marketing company, are expected to pull in more than $1.11Billion (or LE8.5 billion in the Egyptian currency).
Of the three, the IPO for MIDOR is the core; it is planning to raise $1.098Billion (LE 8.38Billion) on Africa’s second largest bourse.
Gas Cool and PetroNeel hope to raise $16.4Million (LE125.5Million) and $6.55Million (LE 50Million) respectively.
2005 was the last time that the Arab Republic of Egypt listed any of its companies on the stock exchange. In that year, Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals and Alexandria Mineral Oils Company offered shares.
Egypt’s new government has been pursuing pro-market policies in the oil and gas sector, including payments of long accumulated debts to exploration and production firms and removal of subsidies on petroleum products.
Listing state-owned petroleum companies takes things further. Although it’s not clear if the state will entirely cede control, but the government has expressed the hope that partnership with the private sector will quicken restructuring of these companies for efficiency and profitability.
By Toyin Akinosho, Publisher
Wood Mackenzie, the oil and gas scout and hydrocarbon industry analyst, has declared the Ohaji South field in Seplat operated Oil Mining Lease (OML) 53, as non-commercial. The company also considers the reserves of liquid hydrocarbon on the acreage as several times less than what is being carried by both Chevron and Seplat.
Seplat acquired the 40% equity belonging to Chevron in the lease in 2014 and finalized the deal after ministerial consent in early 2015. The Ohaji South field was pivotal to that acquisition.
“Wood Mac’s remaining net reserves for OML 53 is 3.52 MMbbls of oil against SEPLAT’s estimate of 51 MMbbls of liquids, and 611 Bcf of gas which is at the upper end of potentially recoverable resources. We classify the gas on OML 53 as non-commercial”.
Some leading geoscientists we consulted argue that Woodmac’s decision is based on the challenging domestic gas market in Nigeria, as well as the fact that three planned LNG projects have stalled in the last seven years. If that is so, then it is indeed tunnel vision on the part of the global firm of oil analysts. Prior to the sale, the undeveloped Ohaji South Field had been the subject of a unitization discussion of a straddling gas structure between Shell and Chevron. Shell, indeed, showed an interest in purchasing the asset, but crashed out of the bid.
Seplat declined to speak officially. But ranking sources in the company told Africa Oil+Gas Report that they have no comments on Wood Mackenzie’s negative assessment of an asset they purchased for $260Million. ”We will sweat the data now that we are in charge of the asset, and we’d keep their views in mind”, some offered.
On OML 55, Woodmac estimates net reserves of 9.15 MMbbls of oil versus Seplat’s estimate of 20 mmbbls of liquids and 156 bcf of gas.“We also classify the gas as non-commercial. SEPLAT will try to redevelop the assets. As ever, its ability to manage the above-ground risks will determine the merits of the deal”.
January 2015 output was slightly lower than 2014 average
Angola’s petroleum and other liquids production remained relatively stagnant over the past few years and declined slightly by 50,000 BOPD to average 1.75 million BPD in 2014, according to the just released update by the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA). Almost 1.7 million BOPD was crude oil. “Angola’s production has been stagnant as a result of persistent technical problems”, the EIA says in the report.Such technical problems, it added, are “related to water injection systems, gas cooling, and floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) units associated with some projects”. These “have caused lengthy maintenance work and disruptions to supply from some fields. Rapid reservoir depletion has also resulted in steep decline rates at some fields”.
EIA declares that the recent drop in global oil prices is not expected to substantially affect Angola’s oil production in the medium term, “but it will most likely delay investment decisions in Angola’s less developed presalt formations”. Angola is the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, behind Nigeria.
The Southwest African country reached peak production of 2Million Barrels of Oil per Day in 2008, but has not been able to clinch and hold on to the magical figure despite some new oil fields coming online, Last June, TOTAL, for instance, put on line a cluster of fields named CLOV, with production capacity of 160,000BOPD. In December 2014, ENI commenced production of the West Hub project, at 45,000BOPD. This combined ~200,000BOPD new input should have lifted Angola higher than the 1.7MMBOPD range, but it simply means that there were declining production in the slew of deepwater fields: KuitoGirassol, Dalia, Kizomba A, B, C &Kizomba satellites, as well as Xikomba, Pazflor, Greater Plutonio, PSVM, CLOV, West Hub
“Angola’s oil production grew by an annual average of 15% from 2002 to 2008 as production started from multiple deepwater fields that were discovered in the 1990s”, the EIA states, repeating the claim earlier made by several sources. The first deepwater field to come online was the Chevron-operated Kuito field (Block 14) in late 1999.
….says an APC victory would be ‘most uncertain scenario’, but could rein in oil theft and corruption.
Wood McKenzie, the global firm of oil industry analysts, says that a victory by Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, “ would be the least disruptive for the oil sector”. In a report that is as much about the impending Nigerian elections (scheduled for kick off March 28, 2015), as it is about post -election oil industry policy, the company says the elections are too close to call, and that a win by PDP will likely come in form of a reduced mandate, which “would increase challenges for the passage of legislation, including the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)”.
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