Africa Oil Corp., Vancouver, BC, agreed to amend the share purchase agreement signed Oct. 31, 2018, between Petrobras International Braspetro BV and Petrovida Holding BV, the company formed by the consortium of Africa Oil, Delonex Energy Ltd., and Vitol Investment Partnership II Ltd., to acquire an ownership interest in Petrobras Oil & Gas BV.
The agreement follows Vitol and Delonex decisions to withdraw from the purchase of 50% of the share capital of Petrobras Oil & Gas. Consequently, Africa Oil will be the sole acquirer of the 50% interest in the Petrobras unit with Vitol and Delonex exiting Petrovida.
The primary assets of Petrobras Oil & Gas are an indirect 8% interest in oil mining lease 127, which contains the producing Agbami field, and an indirect 16% interest in OML 130, which contains producing Akpo and Egina fields.
Chevron Corp. operates Agbami field, which lies 113 km offshore the central Niger Delta in 1,463 m of water, and spans 182 sq km. Discovered in 1998, net production averaged 108,000 b/d of crude oil and 12 MMcfd of natural gas. Agbami is a subsea development with wells tied back to a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel. The original Agbami development scope (Agbami 1, 2, and 3) is complete. To offset field decline, infill drilling continued in 2018 and is planned for 2019.
In January, Total SA and its partners started production from Egina oil field, which lies in 1,600 m of water 150 km offshore Nigeria. The field, at plateau, will produce 200,000 b/d of oil, which represents about 10% of Nigeria’s production (OGJ Online, Jan. 2, 2019). Discovered in 2003, Egina field is the second development on production in OML 130 following Akpo field, which started producing in 2009 (OGJ Online, Mar. 9, 2009).
The transaction is subject to regulatory and third-party approvals, including the Department of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria.
Africa Oil has agreed to terms of a credit committee approved term sheet with BTG Pactual for a guarantee and loan facility of as much as $250 million. Together with available cash, the loan provides funds to cover the Petrobras Oil & Gas deal completion payments and 2020 budget.
