JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Australian oil and gas major Woodside on Thursday announced that it would buy US energy group ConocoPhillips’ interests in Senegal for $350-million.
Under the purchase and sale agreement, Woodside would buy all the shares in ConocoPhillips Senegal, which held a 35% working interest in a production sharing contract with the Senegal government covering three offshore exploration blocks.
The contract also included the SNE and FAN deep-water oil discoveries, with SNE touted as one of the largest global deep-water oil discoveries since 2014. Woodside estimated that the SNE discovery contained 560-million barrels of recoverable oil.
“We are taking advantage of our balance sheet to acquire a world-class asset that fits well with our capabilities, offers significant future upside in exploration and line-of-sight of near-term oil production,” commented Woodside CEO Peter Coleman.
The acquisition also built on Woodside’s agreement to acquire a 65% interest in the AGC Profound exploration block, located to the south in the Senegal-Guinea Bissau joint development zone.
Completion of the production sharing agreement with Senegal was subject to certain conditions, including approval from the Senegal government and pre-emption. It was targeted to close by the end of 2016.