Analysts at Mirabaud said “things are rarely straight forward” when it comes to companies dealing with African governments.
“Ultimately, we think the company will get its amendment, not least because this is the quickest route to drilling on Gambia’s most prolific oil blocks. Termination would lead to protracted arbitration which would tie the blocks up for years and likely be lost in the courtroom.
“This is surely the last thing the new president wants as he seeks to reform the West African nation and open its economy to foreign investors.”
African Petroleum claims a 100% stake in offshore blocks A1 and A4. The first is a 1296 square kilometer tract, with the latter covering 1376 square kilometres.
The company has completed 3D seismic covering 2500 square kilometres, saying it numerous leads and prospects analogous to the Cairn Energy discoveries in neighbouring Senegal. Block A1 abuts Cairn’s acreage in Senegal containing the SNE and Fan oil finds.
African Petroleum has been trying to farm down its Gambia offshore stakes, claiming it has received “significant interest from international and large independent oil companies”.
The company has assigned estimated net unrisked mean prospective oil resources of 3.079 billion stock tank barrels.
Mirabaud har troen!