APC Files for Arbitration Against Senegal

Oslo-listed independent Africa Petroleum Corporation (APC) said June 25 it has lodged a request for arbitration with Washington DC-based arbitration tribunal ICSID over Senegal’s 2017 decision to cancel APC’s Senegal Offshore Sud Profond (SOSP) and Rufisque Offshore Profond (ROP) production sharing contracts. The two licences were handed by the Senegalese government to Total in May 2017.

APC, which also notes recent media reports that Total has completed a significant seismic acquisition on the ROP block and is planning to drill a well in 2019, says it continues to reserve its rights on ROP.

Separately, APC said that ICSID arbitration proceedings that it initiated to protect its interests in the A1 and A4 licences in The Gambia are continuing, with a tribunal constituted for one consolidated ICSID case on both licences. These two were also rescinded by the government there.

APC had 90% operating interests in the two Senegalese blocks and 100% operating interests in the two Gambian ones. The company, which is part-owned by Frank Timis, has the only two offshore Sierra Leone licences awarded to an explorer but has yet to drill on either.