Equatorial Guinea Ophir bows down to Sonagas over Fortuna

摘要

Long and intense, the talks betweenrnEquatorial Guinea’s government andrnOphir, the operator of block R on whichrnthe Fortuna gas field sits, as well as itsrntechnical partner OneLN G (Golar andrnSchlumberger) have finally foundrnreached a conclusion. Under the deal,rnhammered out mostly in Malabo andrnMadrid, the State’s share of the projectrnwill be 2.5 million tons per year ( AEIrn786). Sonagas boss, Juan AntoniornNdong Ondo and Equatorial Guineanrnoil minister Gabriel Obiang Lima havernboth pressured Ophir to open up therncapital of the FLNG to the country’srnstate-owned firms as much as possible.rnHowever, as we announced ( AEI 789),rnJuan Antonio Ndong Ondo has not givenrnup on his plans for Sonagas’ shares tornbe carried by Ophir, something the companyrnhas so far refused to do. Sonagasrnneeds to drum up the funds, to the tunernof $300 million, to secure its contribution,rnand will have to rely on Ophir andrnOneLNG’s generosity. This pair will mostrnlikely front up the money and be reimbursedrnby selling the Equatorial Guineanrnstate’s future share of gas from Fortuna.rnGEPetrol, the Equatorial Guinean companyrnactive in E&P will hold 20% of thernFortuna project, but this time, its stakernwill be entirely carried by Ophir.