Macky Sall's refusal to meet BP bigwig throws another spanner in Grand Tortue works

摘要

BP's new boss in Senegal, Massaer Cisse, underwent a baptism of fire when one of the British major's head honchos visited Dakar in late September. BP vicepresident of exploration and production Gordon Birrell's trip did not go quite as planned. Oil minister Sophie Gladima had requested a meeting for him with the president's office, but the encounter scheduled with Macky Sall on 30 September did not take place. According to our sources, it was the head of state who cancelled it at the last moment. BP has been trying for several weeks to get the Senegalese authorities to endorse a 40% increase in the costs of phase 1 of the development of the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) gas field that straddles the maritime border between Senegal and Mauritania. But the Senegalese state company Petrosen and its boss Mamadou Faye are fiercely opposed to the request, which would represent nearly $1.8bn in additional costs and thus reduce the profit shared between the companies involved and the state. Sall, having learned only at the last minute why he was seeing Birrell, called off the meeting and instructed Petrosen to settle the dispute.