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Somalia: Federal Government approves Coastline Exploration’s Production Sharing Agreements

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Coastline Exploration has announced receipt of final authorization to proceed with its exploration programme in Somalia after paying a $7m signature bonus to the Somali Central Bank. The oil & gas independent had announced last February that it had signed seven Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) for deep-water blocks offshore Somalia.

“We want the first exploration well to start as soon as possible,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said in a statement.

Based out of Houston, Coastline Exploration says it has invested over $50m in Somalia and has been engaged since 2018 on negotiating its offshore PSAs.

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“We are still in operations!”, says Nigeria LNG

Nigeria LNG, Africa’s biggest LNG exporter, has clarified that its terminal on Bonny Island in the Niger Delta is still operating despite a force majeure issued by the company earlier this week. “The company’s plant is in operation though at limited capacity due to reduced gas supply from some of its upstream suppliers,” Nigeria LNG has declared today. The declaration of force majeure by NLNG had raised several concerns on gas supplies in and out of Nigeria. The company is Africa’s largest LNG exporter and the gas it exports represents on average 10% of Nigeria’s export revenues. It is also the biggest domestic supplier of cooking gas, a commodity that already suffers from soaring inflation. The company had earlier revealed that all its upstream gas suppliers had declared force majeure following their inability to produce gas due to ravaging floods that have already displaced millions in the Niger Delta. The shut-in of gas production has caused significant disruption of gas supply to Nigeria LNG, forcing the LNG exporter to operated at limited capacity. Nigeria LNG operates six LNG trains on Bonny Island with a capacity of 22.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). Most of Nigeria’s LNG is exported to Europe and Asia, with key European markets such as France, Spain, and Portugal amongst its largest buyers.

VAALCO completes FSO installation and field reconfiguration offshore Gabon

VAALCO Energy delivered First Oil to the Teli floating, storage, and offloading (FSO) vessel at its Etame Field offshore Gabon on October 18, the company has revealed. The installation of the FSO had been ongoing for several months to replace the previous Petróleo Nautipa FPSO vessel operated by BW Offshore, whose contract expired in September this year. Etame is VAALCO Energy’s flagship project with a net production to the company of some 10,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) on average. A recent extension of the production sharing contract (PSC) until 2028 paved the way for the reconfiguration of the field and a new drilling campaign. In August 2021, VAALCO Energy signed a binding letter of intent with World Carrier Offshore Services Corp. to provide and operate a FSO unit for up to eight years with additional option periods available. The agreement eventually led to the execution of a Bareboat Contract and Operating Agreement with Greece’s World Carrier Corp. to provide and operate the new Teli FSO. In doing so, VAALCO Energy expects to reduce storage and offloading costs almost 50%, lower total operating costs by approximately 17% to 20% through 2030, and increase effective capacity for storage by over 50%. In total, and once the field is reconfigured, the agreement with World Carrier is expected to lead to annual operating expense savings of around $20 to $25m over the life of the new agreement, according to VAALCO. Meanwhile the company recently extended its ongoing drilling campaign on the block from four to six wells. The Etame 8HST, Avouma 3H-ST, South Tchibala 1HB-ST, and ETBNM 2H—ST have already been drilled this year, tracking data from the Hawilti+ research terminal shows.