Petroleum Africa
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Wednesday, June 21, 2017
FAR Ltd. has made a request to the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris to commence arbitration proceedings to resolve the current Joint Operating Agreement dispute in Senegal.
The dispute revolves around FAR’s right to pre-empt the sale of ConocoPhillips’ interest in the Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep Joint Venture offshore Senegal.
In mid-2016 ConocoPhillips and Woodside Petroleum entered a deal that would have Woodside acquire ConocoPhilip’s 35% stake in the Senegalese blocks for $440 million. Both firms are maintaining that the requirements of the JOA have been fulfilled, with ConocoPhillips declaring in August that the 30-day period for a possible pre-emption time period had expired. FAR, however, said that period never began.
Now the partners will be in the middle of an arbitration case, which will most likely slow up the development of the resources discovered.
But still rumbling under the surface is a legal dispute over pre-emptive rights to the stake sold by Conoco, which has been questioned by junior venture partner FAR Ltd.
While Conoco declared in August that the 30-day period that its Senegal venture partners had to pre-empt the Woodside deal had expired, ASX-listed FAR maintains that the US major has breached the operating agreement for the venture and that the pre-emption period has not yet commenced.
Less than 24-hours after FAR announced it was filing for arbitration Senegal’s Minister of Energy and the Development of Renewable Energy issued an arrêtéministériel (Ministerial Order), which according to Woodside, provides further confirmation of its participation in the Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep Joint Venture.
Woodside in a statement went on to say: “As FAR has apparently initiated arbitration proceedings, Woodside does not intend to make any further comment on the arbitration proceedings at this stage.”
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