Understanding Mozambique's fiscal regime (Part I)

Government take across countries in East Africa are generally below the Sub Saharan Africa average of 62%. This reflects the relative infancy of the E&P industry in the region with high exploration risk and uncertainties on the path to commericialising discovered resources. A lower fiscal take is required to attract investment. Mozambique’s government take lies in the middle of its East African neighbours - lower than Uganda where significant...

Read More

Gran Tierra's Grand Tour (into Ecuador)

Gran Tierra has won three blocks in Ecuador covering c.140,000 acres in the highly prospective Oriente-Putumayo Basin: Charapa, Chanangue and Iguana. The blocks are contiguous with Gran Tierra’s Putumayo position in Colombia and allows the company to extend its Colombian success on the trend across the border. Gran Tierra will have 100% interest and operatorship on each block in exchange for a 14 well, four year work programme – management...

Read More

Fighting the Kraken

Cairn has announced a reserves downgrade on Kraken by 6.8mmboe (net) or 19% to reflect ongoing production issues. The field has been hit by a myriad of problems since start-up in 2017 and its failure to be farmed-down by operator EnQuest in 2018 highlights the technical concerns on the field. The field's output has been hit by poor FPSO uptime driven by system outages as well as higher water-cut than originally expected. There will be a planned...

Read More

ExxonMobil scores big this week

ExxonMobil has made two significant announcements this week: the sanction of the USD10+ billion Golden Pass LNG project and further exploration success in Guyana. Golden Pass LNG On Tuesday, ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum sanctioned the Golden Pass LNG project in Texas. It will have a cost of USD10+ billion and deliver capacity of 16mtpa from 2024. Golden Pass was originally a LNG import facility but will be converted over the next five years. The...

Read More

Anadarko signs SPAs for Mozambique LNG

Anadarko has signed three gas Sale and Purchase Agreements (“SPAs”) with Tokyo Gas/Centrica (2.6mtpa), Shell (2mtpa) and CNOOC (1.5mtpa) for its Mozambique LNG Area 1 development. This total 6.1mtpa of the planned 12.88mtpa ahead of FID expected in mid-2019. The LNG development will challenge upcoming projects given its fortunate location in between the Asian and European markets and will compete with Australian, Middle Eastern and North American...

Read More

Cluff extends farm-out exclusivity in Southern North Sea to Major

Cluff Natural Resources press release Further to its announcement on 28 November 2018, Cluff Natural Resources Plc, the AIM quoted natural resources investing company with a high impact exploration and appraisal portfolio focused on the Southern North Sea gas basin, provides an update regarding its exclusivity agreement with a major oil and gas company for its Southern North Sea Gas licence P2252. As previously announced, the Company signed an...

Read More

UK North Sea gets shot in the arm with Glengorm

CNOOC, Total and Edison have made one of the biggest finds in the UK North Sea in recent years. The Glengorm discovery is estimated to contain recoverable resources of 250mmboe which is even bigger than Total’s recent success in the West of Shetlands at Glendronach which had 1tcf of gas (c.160mmboe). Glengorm sits on licence P2215 and in the vicinity of both the Culzean and Elgin & Franklin gas fields which could act as future hosts for Glengorm. Glengorm...

Read More