Offshore staff
TORONTO – Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire Namibia-based E&P independent Azinam Group’s full offshore asset portfolio.
Azinam’s shareholders would gain a 16.65% equity stake in the enlarged group on completion of the acquisition.
Azinam is a subsidiary of Azinam Holdings, in which Seacrest Capital Group is the majority owner.
Under the terms of the transaction, Eco would gain a 50% operated interest in block 2B in the Orange basin off South Africa, where Africa Energy, Panoro Energy, and Crown Energy are the other partners.
It would also gain a 20% stake in the deepwater 3B/4B block and the shallow water and nearshore 3B/4B blocks: here Africa Oil will remain as operator.
Offshore Namibia, Eco will gain additional interests in its current oil blocks in which Azinam is a partner, namely petroleum exploration licenses (PELs) #97, #98 and #99, giving it 85% in each case on completion. Eco operates these and PEL #100.
Block 2B, 300 km (186 mi) north of Cape Town, contains a light oil discovery drilled by Soekor in 1988 (A-J1). Here Azinam and its partners have commissioned Aberdeen-based NRG Well Management to complete well design engineering and to assist well planning.
They have identified preferred drilling targets, conducted a seabed survey, issued a semisubmersible rig tender process for the first well and started negotiations to secure critical equipment, including a wellhead. Eco will operate the Gazania-1 exploration well, targeting 349 MMbbl of oil, in water depths below 200 m (656 ft).
In blocks 3B/4B and nearshore 3B/4B, the partners are reprocessing a large 3D seismic survey with a view to high-grade leads for drilling. Block 3B/4B is directly south of the deepwater Graff-1 (Shell) and Venus-1 (TotalEnergies) wildcats.
Completion of the transaction remains subject to approval from the governments of South Africa and Namibia.
01/10/2022
