CAIRN WAVERS BETWEEN A CHARGE ON EXPLORATION AND A STRATEGIC RETREAT

摘要

According to our sources, theBritish junior Cairn Energy wouldlike to shed a portion of its stakein the Senegalese blocks on whichit discovered the giant SNE fieldin 2014. The company headed bySimon Thomson is looking tohalve its 40% share in RufisqueOffshore, Sangomar Offshore andSangomar Deep Offshore to 20%.SNE, for which a final investmentdecision should be made beforethe end of the year, is now operatedby Australian concernWoodside Energy. The fieldshould be producing 100,000 bpdby 2022 but Cairn wants to avoidbeing too financially exposedbefore then. The junior has severalexploration projects on the go onwhich it needs to spend severaltens of millions of dollars. It iscurrently waiting on the Ivoriangovernment’s greenlight to pickup a 30% stake in seven of TullowOil’s onshore blocks in IvoryCoast. The transaction had beensitting on ice at the ministry ofhydrocarbons, first under ministerThierry Tanoh then his successorAbdourahmane Cisse, beforePresident Alassane Ouattaragave orders to unblock the situationin April ( AEI 839). CairnEnergy also has its eyes on Total’sC6 block, offshore Mauritania. Itholds an option to acquire 30%of the permit for which the Frenchmajor should be making a decisionto drill in the coming weeks.