LNG

Challenger Energy, the Americas-focused and London-listed exploration and production company, has formally signed the Area 3 licence offshore Uruguay where field resources include around 9 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The Area 3 licence was awarded under the Open Uruguay Round process and, following final regulatory approvals being granted, was signed in Montevideo on March 7.

“Accordingly, the Area 3 first exploration period will commence on 7th June 2024 and will run for four years, until 6th June 2028,” said Challenger.

Depth and range

The Area 3 licence covers an area of 13,252 square kilometres located in relatively shallow water depths (from 20 metres to 1,000 metres) around 100 kms (62 miles) off the Uruguayan coast.

“The block has substantial existing 2D and 3D seismic coverage, with two previously identified material prospects possessing currently estimated gross resource potential of up to 2 billion barrels of oil and up to 9 Tcf of natural gas,” said Challenger.

Uruguay’s state-owned oil and gas company ANCAP awarded Challenger with the Area 1 block licence in May 2020 and the company confirmed a farm-out process for the block three years later.

“Thanks to the farm-out agreement with Chevron Corp., the company is in the process of divesting a 60 percent interest in the Area 1 block,” explained Challenger.

During the initial exploration period, the Company's minimum work obligations on the Area 3 block are relatively modest, comprising licensing and reprocessing of 1,000km of legacy 2D seismic data and undertaking two geotechnical studies.

“The company intends to follow a similar strategy to that successfully adopted for the Area 1 licence (the farm-out of which to Chevron was announced on 6th March 2024), specifically to accelerate its technical work programme including additional discretionary work,” Challenger added.

Strong position

Eytan Uliel, Chief Executive of Challenger, said that the signing of the Area 3 licence cements the company’s position as a significant industry participant in Uruguay's offshore.

“It represents a successful expansion of the company's business in Uruguay, a country that has fast become one of the world's frontier exploration hotspots,” explained Uliel.

“We believe that Area 3 has strong technical merit and offers an exciting value-creation opportunity,” the CEO stated.

Challenger noted that to the east is the Brazilian maritime border, an area that was subject to considerable licensing in December 2023, with 13 nearby Brazilian blocks licenced variously to Chevron, Shell, China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Brazil’s Petrobras.

To the south, the block is adjacent to two deepwater Uruguayan blocks, Area 6, held by Houston, Texas-based APA Corp. and Area 7, which is held by Shell.

Coro Energy Plc, the London-listed South East Asian energy company with a natural gas portfolio, said a term sheet had been signed with Sembcorp Gas of Singapore for a long-term gas sales agreement for the Mako gas field in Indonesia to supply the Asian city state.

The operator of the Duyung production sharing contract, West Natuna Exploration, a subsidiary of Conrad Asia Energy with a 76.5 percent interest in the Duyung resources, had signed the term sheet with Sembcorp Gas. Coro and another UK-listed company, Empyrean plc, hold 15 percent and 8.5 percent respectively of the Duyung PSC.

“Critically, the term sheet has been endorsed by the Indonesian petroleum upstream regulator (SKK Migas),” said Coro in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

Analysts noted that gas would supply Singapore through an existing pipeline in competition to the LNG cargoes delivered to the Jurong Island LNG import terminal.

Indonesian plans

The development of the Mako gas project has been in line with Indonesia's stated objective of doubling gas production by 2030.

The Mako gas field was discovered in 2016, and since that time the resource has been delineated through successful appraisal drilling.

It received formal approval from the Government of Indonesia for the revised Plan of Development in late 2022.

Coro noted that it has a 15 percent participating interest in the Duyung PSC.

“The term sheet relates to the sale of Mako gas from start of production until 2037 for a total sales gas volume (100 percent) of 293 billion cubic feet with the potential to increase to 392 Bcf. Gas sales will be priced against Brent oil,” explained Coro.

“Further details of the gas sales agreement will be released to the market once the agreement is executed,” explained Coro.

Endorsed

The company added that the parties were now focused on finalising a definitive gas sales agreement.

“I am delighted to have now secured the GSA Heads at the Duyung PSC, approved by the buyer and, critically, endorsed by the Indonesian authorities,” stated James Parsons, Chairman of Coro.

“This is a critical step in the commercial de-risking of our project, positioning us perfectly for bids from the operator's farm-out process, which we expect to play out shortly,” Parsons added.

SDX Energy plc, the UK-based oil and gas exploration and production company, said it started drilling the Ksiri-21 well in the Sebou Central area of the Gharb Basin in the North African kingdom of Morocco.

SDX Energy plc, the UK-based oil and gas exploration and production company, said it had received multiple offers for its Egyptian natural gas assets and was considering them.

Tlou Energy, the company developing projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, said the Lesedi gas-to-power project remained on track to get natural gas-fired power into the grid in Botswana from the southern African nation’s own coal-seam gas (CSG), a resource that is used by companies in Australia to produce and export LNG.

NewMed Energy, a stakeholder in the largest Israeli offshore natural gas field and a likely future LNG feed-gas supplier, said it was looking more unlikely that it would proceed with the process of being listed on the London Stock Exchange through a reverse takeover of UK company Capricorn Energy.

The expected completion date of the NewMed merger with London-listed Capricorn was the first quarter of 2023.

However, Capricorn has been caught up in a dispute with a major shareholder and has put back a meeting of all shareholders to approve the deal with NewMed.

Capricorn had previously cancelled its proposed merger with UK rival Tullow Oil in favour of the combination with Israel’s NewMed, which was first announced on September 29, 2022.

There had been plans for a $1.4 billion merger between Tullow and Capricorn, which is based in Edinburgh and was formerly known as Cairn Energy.

Among its assets, NewMed holds the rights to 45 percent of the Leviathan Israeli offshore gas field with the other major shareholder in the field being Chevron Corp.

Cyprus gas field

NewMed also has the Aphrodite gas field in Cyprus's offshore economic zone waters, making it one of the biggest players in the East Mediterranean.

In the latest merger developments, Capricorn released a statement to the London Stock Exchange whereby it had decided to adjourn Capricorn's shareholder meeting called for the purpose of approving the NewMed transaction, to February 22 instead of February 1.

An alternative shareholder meeting was called at the request of one significant Capricorn shareholder, Palliser Capital (UK) Ltd., for the replacement of the serving directors of Capricorn with new directors that were proposed by Palliser and a meeting for this purpose was then scheduled to take place on February 1 instead of a meeting to approve the NewMed deal.

Members of the board of Capricorn, including the Chairman of the board and the Chief Executive, resigned immediately from the board and it was also the intention of two other directors, including the Chief Finance Officer, to resign from the board before the February 1 meeting called at the request of Palliser.

NewMed said that in view of these developments and the resignation of most of the Capricorn board members, the probability for the closing of the UK transaction had “significantly decreased”.

The Israeli company said it was continuing to examine strategic alternatives with the aim of “maximizing value” for its own shareholders.

NewMed is currently in the midst of plans to promote the expansion of the Leviathan gas field offshore Israel and the development of the Aphrodite reservoir alongside the launch of exploration and production of natural gas in other Middle East countries.

The Leviathan gas field in addition to supplying the Israeli domestic market also supplies Egypt and Jordan with gas and has existing plans to possibly supply feed gas for liquefaction at the two Egyptian LNG plants, Idku and Damietta, located east of Alexandria.

Jan 16 (LNGJ) - NewMed Energy, a main shareholder in the largest Israeli offshore natural gas field and a likely future LNG feed-gas supplier, said it was continuing with the process of being listed on the London Stock Exchange through a reverse takeover of UK company Capricorn Energy despite a possible last-minute hold-up. This followed a request received by Capricorn from a shareholder Palliser Capital, which holds a 6.9 percent Capricorn stake, for another shareholder meeting to be convened on the same day, February 1, 2023, as one already called to approve the NewMed-Capricorn transaction.

   Palliser is calling for the replacement of most of the members of Capricorn’s board with new directors proposed by Palliser. “NewMed is continuing to promote the proposed business combination on its existing terms,” said a statement from the Israel company. “NewMed would reiterate that it continues to believe that the current terms and conditions of the proposed business combination with Capricorn are the most compelling option for all relevant stakeholders,” it added.

Savannah Energy plc, the British independent energy company focused around the delivery of projects in Africa, has signed a share purchase agreement with a unit of Petronas to acquire the Malaysian energy company’s entire South Sudan oil and gas portfolio.

South Sudan is a landlocked nation in East Africa and has only in recent times gained independence.

Savannah Energy’s purchase covers the acquisition of Petronas Carigali Nile Limited for a total cash consideration of up to US$1.25 billion, subject to certain completion adjustments.

“The transaction is expected to be financed through a combination of the enlarged group’s available cash resources and debt,” said a statement.

Savannah is already active with current operations in other African nations such as Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria.

The London-based company explained that the transaction was conditional upon the satisfaction of certain conditions including approval by the Government of the Republic of South Sudan, the approval of Savannah’s shareholders and re-admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) taking effect.

China partners

Completion of the transaction would result in the company acquiring PCNL’s interests in three joint operating companies (JOCs) which operate Block 3/7 (40 percent working interest), Block 1/2/4 (30 percent) and Block 5A (67.9 percent) in South Sudan.

The Petronas assets comprise of interests in 64 producing fields, with first production having commenced in 1999.

In 2021, the Petronas assets produced an average gross 153.2 thousand barrels of oil per day.

The major partners in the JOCs include India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp., two Chinese majors, China National Petroleum Corp. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) and Nilepet, the national oil company of South Sudan.

“The transaction constitutes a reverse takeover pursuant to AIM Rule 14 and, accordingly, will be subject to, inter alia, shareholder approval,” added Savannah.

Trading in the company’s ordinary shares were suspended from trading on AIM on December 12.

Savannah also explained that it intended to publish an AIM Admission Document in the first-half of 2023, which would contain a notice of a general meeting at which shareholder approval shall be sought and following which the company would seek restoration to trading on AIM of its ordinary shares.

NewMed Energy, the Israel company formally known as Delek Drilling, said it was considering a floating liquefied national gas plant to further develop the Leviathan gas field offshore Israel in the East Mediterranean amid other gas developments in the region.

SDX Energy Plc, the UK-based exploration and production company with interests in Morocco and Egypt, has announced a successful two-well Moroccan drilling campaign that opens up a new producing area.