Mergers & Acquisitions

Eco Atlantic to consolidate Southern African portfolio with acquisition of Azinam

Eco Atlantic CEO Gil Holzman speaks at the World Energy Capital Assembly in December 2021.

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The South Atlantic continental margins of Africa continue to fuel investors’ appetite as their promising prospects open up to oil & gas exploration. Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas, the Canadian independent with assets in Guyana and Namibia, has just announced its acquisition of 100% of Azinam to consolidate its portfolio in the region, including in Namibia and South Africa.

The company announced this morning the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acquire Azinam Group Ltd, in return for a 16.65% equity stake in the enlarged group n completion of the transaction.

Under this new deal, Eco Atlantic is expected to close the acquisition of Azinam’s entire offshore asset portfolio in Namibia and South Africa by the end of January 2022. The agreement provides for a consideration in the form of new common shares to Azinam Holdings Limited who will own 16.65% of the enlarged Group.

The licenses in which AziNam has working interests represent some of the most promising exploration assets in South Western Africa, with several drill-ready prospects that could yield future world-class discoveries.

Gaining exposure to South African exploration opportunities

These notably include a 50% operated interest in the Block 2B where the Gazania-1 exploratory well is expected to be spudded in the second half of this year.

“Discussions are already underway with Eco’s key existing stakeholders in relation to underwriting the funds required to participate directly in the 2022 Block 2B South Africa drilling programme.”

Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas, 10 January 2022

The drilling location for Gazania-1 will test both the Namaqualand (1,840m) and Gazania (2,040m) Prospects. Gazania is an up-dip of the proven A-J1 oil discovery and has Best Estimate Prospective Resources of 300mbarrels.

Also in South Africa, Eco Atlantic will gain Azinam’s 20% working interest in the deep-water 3B/4B Block operated by Africa Oil Corp. (AOC). AOC is notably an equity investor into Eco Atlantic and owns 18.7% of the company’s shares. Recent data acquisition and interpretation from Block 3B/4B has allowed current partners to identify an inventory of leads and prospects out of which Wolf, previously known as Aardwolf, could be subject to exploratory drilling in the near future.

Finally, Eco Atlantic will also enter the Nearshore Block 3B/4B where Azinam is operator with a 51% interest.

Consolidating Namibia’s exploration portfolio

In Namibia, Eco Atlantic is de facto consolidating its interest in licenses it already operates and is familiar with.

Azinam is Eco Atlantic’s partner on petroleum exploration licenses (PEL) 97, 98 and 99 that were re-issued in 2020 with the establishment of a new 10-year life cycle (4 + 2 + 2) for each. During the first exploration period of four years, Eco Atlantic notably plans to shoot 3,000km of 2D seismic and 7,750 km2 of 3D seismic in different surveys across the blocks.

Upon completion of the Azinam acquisition, Eco Atlantic will have increased its operated working interest in those blocks to 85%. It notably estimates that 2.362 billion barrels of oil equivalent of prospective P50 resources could be held within these four areas, which cover a total of over 28,500 km2.

The acquisition announced today is one of many deals that have marked exploration activity in Namibia and South Africa in recent years. Several prospects are currently being drilled in the Orange Basin, including Venus-1 (TotalEnergies) and Graff-1 (Shell) in Namibia.

“The deal is expected to complete by 31 January 2022 subject, inter alia, to the signing of a Share Purchase Agreement and satisfactory completion of due diligence by Eco and any requisite approvals.”

Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas, 10 January 2022

More details on Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas and Azinam along with the exploration activity on PEL 97 and Blocks 2B and 3B/4B are available in the “Companies” and “Projects” section within your Hawilti+ research terminal.

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Africa50 and India’s POWERGRID join hands for Kenya’s first independent power transmission project

Pan-African infrastructure investment platform Africa50 and the Power Grid Corporation of India (POWERGRID) have signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) for the continued development of the Kenya Transmission Project. The 400 kV Lessos-Loosuk and 200 Kv Kisumu-Musaga transmissions lines are being developed in Western Kenya on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Africa50 and POWERGRID are developing, financing, constructing and operating both lines, which form Kenya’s first independent power transmission venture. The project represents Africa’s first financing of transmission lines on a PPP basis and could pave the way for additional private sector involvement in the continent’s energy infrastructure. “In this development partnership, POWERGRID, one of the world’s leading electric transmission utility companies will provide technical and operational know-how to the project, while Africa50 will bring its project development and finance expertise and will act as a bridge between the Kenyan government and private investors,” Africa50 said.

Chariot announces significant gas discovery at Anchois-2 offshore Morocco

AIM-listed Chariot has confirmed the presence of significant gas accumulations in the appraisal and exploration objectives of its Anchois-2 well within its Lixius License offshore Morocco. Preliminary interpretation of the data has identified a calculated net gas pay totaling over 100m (compared with 55m at Anchois-1). At Anchois-2’s appraisal target, a continuation of a reservoir drilled by Anchois-1, the Gas Sand B notably has a calculated total net gas pay of over 50m in two stacked reservoirs of similar thickness.    At the well’s exploration targets, Gas Sands C, M and O were successfully encountered with multiple gas-bearing intervals, Chariot has said. This new significant gas discovery will help to expand the Anchois gas field and possibly expand the scale of its gas development in the future. It also significantly de-risks additional exploration prospects within the license area. Chariot has been operator of the Lixius License since 2019 with a 75% interest. The block was previously known as the Tanger-Larache permit and already included the Anchois-1 discovery made by Repsol in 2009. Anchois’s first phase of development is expected to include the drilling of four production wells tied into a subsea manifold, along with the installation of a 14in-diameter, 40km subsea flowline with control umbilical to the subsea manifold, construction of a 53 MMscfd onshore central processing facility (CPF) for exporting gas, and a 14in-diameter onshore pipeline for gas export. In October 2021, Chariot signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a leading international energy group agreeing on the key terms of gas offtake from Anchois. Under the Mou, the key terms of the future gas sales agreements will be for c.40 MMscfd, for up to 20 years on a take or pay basis. The phase two development plan is expected to involve additional wells to tie-in the Anchois W, Anchois WSW and Anchois SW areas of the field into the subsea manifold. It will be financed using the cashflow generated from first phase production. Details on the Anchois Gas Development are available in the “Projects” section within your Hawilti+ research terminal.