SacOil Seeks to Delist from AIM

South Africa’s small upstream independent SacOil is to ask shareholders on May 22 for consent to terminate its London AIM listing.

It said April 24 2017 that 93.8% of its share capital is traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and that an AIM (Alternative Investment Market) listing is no longer in the firm’s interest. The vote to delist requires 75% or more in favour.

SacOil early 2016 came to prominence when it outlined plans for a $6bn, 2,600km gas pipeline from northern Mozambique to South Africa’s industrial heartland, citing Chinese giant CNPC as a partner. But one month later, on April 25 2016, SacOil elected not to sign the related joint venture agreement.

Although it appeared that the gas pipe project had some support from South African, and to a lesser extent, Mozambican government interests, it elicited no support from firms such as Eni and Anadarko that hold vast gas resources offshore northern Mozambique and who viewed the $6bn scheme as a distraction from monetising those resources as LNG exports in the 2020s. Nor did Sasol, with gas onshore southern Mozambique, buy into the idea.

SacOil has minor output at the Lagia oil field in Egypt’s Sinai province, and exploration/appraisal interests in Congo-Kinshasa, Malawi and Botswana.

Mark Smedley