Azinam Moves into South Africa
Azinam, the Seacrest Capital-backed African oil explorer, said September 11 it has acquired operating interests in two licences offshore South Africa.
They are a 40% stake in Block 3B/4B and a 51% stake in nearshore Block 3B/4B in the Orange Basin. Existing South African owner Ricocure will retain 60% and 49% in the blocks respectively. Both farm-ins are subject to government approval and other conditions. The licences were previously held by Ricocure under Technical Co-operation Permits. Exploration Right applications have already been submitted for both Block 3B/4B and Nearshore Block 3B/4B - an application which both partners expect to be completed and approved by the beginning of 2019.
Azinam is already active offshore neighbouring Namibia: it recently brought ExxonMobil into one of its licences there (PEL44), while in another (Chariot-operated PEL 71) a well is to be drilled in 4Q.
South Africa will be a new country entry for Azinam. The two new blocks cover 18,530 km2 in aggregate, with Block 3B/4B some 120 to 250 km offshore South Africa (see map below). The Block 3B/4B licence was previously held by BHP Billiton who acquired a 10,000km² 3D seismic survey in 2012 which Azinam plans to reprocess.
Azinam says, following the acquisition, it will have one of the largest portfolios offshore southwest Africa – totalling 80,530km² – possessing world class prospects within attractive fiscal regimes. It did not specify whether net or gross to Azinam.
Managing director Daniel McKeown said of its planned move offshore South Africa: "We see this as a natural expansion of our existing offshore Namibia operation and we will be developing our Windhoek [Namibia] office further under the guidance of our vice president of exploration, Uaapi Utjavari, who was instrumental in sourcing, evaluating and securing this exciting opportunity."
Update September 13: Azinam said that Philip Loader - a former Woodside executive vice president of global exploration - has been appointed a non-executive director, and also a strategic adviser to Seacrest, both with immediate effect. "I look forward to contributing to the establishment of Azinam as an industry leader in the South Atlantic margin of Africa," he said.
Azinam's two new licences offshore South Africa
Map credit: Azinam