Private Nigerian trading house Beluga Energy has signed a binding Heads of Agreement with Tower Resources Cameroon last month to acquire a 49% non-operating working interest in the Thali production sharing contract (PSC) offshore Cameroon.
As operator, Tower Resources had been looking for a partner for some time in order to drill the NJOM-3 well. Consequently, the farm-out with Beluga Energy covers $15 million towards the cost of that well.
With gross mean prospective resources of 111 million barrels across four identified prospects, the Thali PSC could be Cameroon’s next significant shallow water development and sees Beluga Energy entering in a drill-ready asset. Tower Resources has been operating the licence since 2015, when it acquired the block where French major Total had declared two gas discoveries: Rumpi-1 and Njonji-2 (now NJOM-2) and one oil discovery: Njonji-1 (now NJOM-1).
Following a reprocessing of all available data, Tower Resouces started planning the drilling of NJOM-3 very early on. However, plans were delayed due first to the lack of site survey data, which was completed and acquired in early 2020, then by the Covid-19 pandemic. Two extensions of the initial exploration periods have provided enough time to drill and complete the well. The last exploration extension period was granted in May 2021 and runs until May 11th, 2022.