Petroleum Africa
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Monday, December 22, 2014
Azonto Petroleum reported that its affiliate, Vioco Petroleum (Azonto 35%/Vitol 65%), that the president of Cote d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, has signed an Exclusive Exploitation Authorization (EEA) covering the Gazelle field on Block CI-202 offshore the West African nation.
Award of the EEA follows approval of the Field Development Plan for Gazelle by Petroci, the state oil company, as announced at the end of October, and demonstrates clear support for the project from the authorities in Cote d’Ivoire.
Vioco is now working towards project sanction which is anticipated in H1 2015 and first gas is around H2 2016.
Azonto’s MD, Rob Shepherd said: “Today’s announcement is a welcome development for Azonto and its shareholders. Overall progress on Gazelle has been much slower than originally anticipated but award of the EEA by the President is visible confirmation of continued support for the project from the highest level.
“As we indicate in our corporate presentation and as also highlighted in external research available on our website, the value of Azonto’s interest in Gazelle is significantly in excess of our current market capitalization. The reality is that, whilst the development of Gazelle has faced additional execution challenges primarily due to the need to fully align the upstream and midstream phases, the economics remain fully robust even though the price of oil has fallen significantly in recent months. We look forward therefore to working with Vioco towards project sanction and unlocking full value for shareholders.”
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