Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Sept. 27 -- Malaysia's Petronas reported it will acquire the oil and gas assets in Mauritania owned by Perth-based Woodside Petroleum Ltd. for $418 million.
The sale includes both onshore and offshore exploration, development, and production interests in the West African country. The move follows a number of past announcements made by Woodside that it plans to restructure its portfolio. The company is exiting Africa to focus more on its growing LNG business.
Mauritania's offshore region became the newest West African oil province when Woodside made a series of discoveries—Chinguetti, Banda, Tiof, and Tevet—during 2001-04. The region, however, has not yet lived up to its early promise.
Chinguetti field was brought on stream in February 2006 at 70,000 b/d of oil. In recent months, production from the field has fallen unexpectedly to 15,000 b/d. Woodside blamed the drastic flow decline on complex geology and quickly put on hold its next project, Tiof.
Woodside has interests ranging from 37.5% to 53.8% in four offshore blocks in the region. In 2005, the company also has farmed into two large onshore blocks held by fellow Australian firm Baraka Petroleum Ltd. in the Taoudeni basin on the border with Mali.
Woodside is continuing to examine its options for its remaining African assets including exploration ventures offshore Kenya, onshore Libya, and a stake in the producing Ohanet natural gas project onshore Algeria.