Africa focused oil and gas firm, Tullow Oil plc, has announced that it has exercised its right of pre-emption related to the sale of Occidental Petroleum’s interests in the Jubilee and TEN fields in the Republic of Ghana to Kosmos Energy.
The company said when the acquisition process is completed, its equity interests will increase to 38.9 per cent in the Jubilee field and to 54.8 per cent in the TEN fields.
The transaction is expected to cost Tullow about US$150 million to be funded through existing resources.
“As per the DWT Joint Operating Agreement (JOA), Tullow has pre-emption rights in respect of the 11.05 per cent participating interest within the offshore DWT Block acquired by Kosmos Energy as a result of its acquisition of Anadarko WCTP Company announced on 13 October 2021.
“Tullow has exercised its right of pre-emption over this participating interest in DWT and assuming all JV Partners also fully exercise their pre-emption rights, this would increase Tullow’s share in the Block by 7.7 per cent (to a total of 54.8 per cent ). This would, in turn, increase Tullow’s equity interests in the Jubilee and TEN fields to 38.9 per cent and 54.8 per cent, respectively,’’ the company said in a statement posted on its website.
The CEO of Tullow, Rahul Dhir commented: “This is a value accretive, the self-funded opportunity for the Group which will increase Tullow’s daily Group production by 10 per cent and generate additional cash flow to help accelerate debt reduction. Increasing our operated stakes in the Jubilee and TEN fields underscores our commitment to investing in and delivering our Ghana Value Maximisation Plan. This opportunity fits well with our strategy to focus on maximizing value from our producing assets. We look forward to constructive conversations with our JV Partners and the Government of Ghana as we finalise the transaction.”
“The NPA is an agency responsible for monitoring downstream petroleum industry and that combating fuel activities are central to what the Authority does,” he explained, noting that Ghana is the only country in the sub-region that consumes the highest quality of fuel.
Against this background, he said it was important to maintain such a feat and called for these activities to be tackled to the barest minimum.
Commenting on the development, Chairman of the Aflao Border Security Committee, Majeed Amandi, said unapproved entry points and routes on the Ghana-Togo borders were fueling criminal activities including fuel smuggling.
Mr Amandi, who doubles as the Assistant Commissioner of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority-Aflao Collection, indicated that the service was fighting the menace together with other security agencies as well as the NPA in a bid to intensify patrols and enhance efforts to combat the long-standing problem.
The Assistant Commissioner noted that during patrol operations, they observed that illegal actors operated at midnight to avoid detection.
He described them as daring because they always found their way into the country’s borders and offloaded unwholesome petroleum products into the Ghanaian market.
He said this is also a result of the unavailability of special boats for patrols on the seas at night.
He said border security agencies needed working tools to combat the illicit trade.
The Volta Regional Manager of the NPA, Mr Rasheed Dauda said he appreciated the collaboration with the security agencies at Aflao and pledged to work closely with them to arrest the criminals.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
