Offshore staff
LONDON – Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has notified Ophir Energy that it will not gain an extension for the offshore block R license.
The block contains the deepwater Fortuna gas discovery. Ophir had been seeking to develop the gas using a Golar-converted floating LNG vessel, but had so far failed to secure sufficient financial backing for the project.
Front-end engineering design had started in July 2015, and the targeted production was around 330 MMcf/d, with a plateau of 30 years.
Alan Booth, Ophir’s interim chief executive, said: “It is disappointing that the Ministry has decided not to extend the licence, despite the amount of effort and cost dedicated to the delivery of the project and especially as we were still talking to highly credible potential co-investors.
“Nevertheless, we will continue to work constructively with the authorities in Equatorial Guinea.”
01/07/2019
