Petroleum Africa
Find us on: 
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Hyperdynamics Corp. filed legal actions against its partners under the JOA governing the oil and gas exploration rights offshore Guinea, Tullow Oil and Dana Petroleum. The company’s subsidiary, SCS Corp., has filed parallel actions in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas and before the American Arbitration Association against Tullow Guinea Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tullow Oil, and Dana Petroleum (E&P), a wholly owned subsidiary of Korea’s KNOC, for their failure to meet their obligations under the JOA and the PSC with the government of Guinea.
The two legal actions seek (1) a determination that Tullow and Dana are in breach of their contractual obligations, (2) orders requiring Tullow and Dana to move forward with well drilling activities offshore Guinea, and (3) the damages caused by the repeated delays in drilling wells caused by the activities of Tullow and Dana. Hyperdynamics determined to bring the legal actions only after it became apparent that Tullow and Dana would not move forward, despite many opportunities to do so, with petroleum operations.
As of the date of this release, the Production Sharing Contact Amendment agreed to at the Petroleum Operations Management Committee in Guinea on December 16-17, 2015, remains unsigned by both Tullow and Dana despite the fact that Tullow initialed the document in Guinea and the amendment contains the exact title assurance request previously made by Dana. Instead of signing, the two companies have exchanged the document repeatedly with each continuing to insist the other must sign first and even ignoring Hyperdynamics’ suggestion that they sign simultaneously.
Ray Leonard, President and CEO, commented, “We bring these lawsuits with reluctance, and only after concluding that all other avenues available to us have been exhausted. Having watched Dana and Tullow send the unsigned PSC amendment back and forth to each other repeatedly, we determined that neither of our partners was prepared to honor the commitments made to us and to the Government of Guinea to proceed with drilling. We therefore had no choice but to pursue our rights by the only means left open to us. We plan to continue with all efforts to get this well drilled.”
Pursuant to the agreement between Tullow and a subsidiary of Hyperdynamics in 2012 in connection with the sale to Tullow of a portion of Hyperdynamics’ interest in the concession, Tullow agreed to drill an exploratory well and to pay all of the costs of Hyperdynamics’ participating share of expenditures associated with joint operations up to a gross exploration cap of $100 million.
" alt="First LNG Realized at the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Project">
" alt="United Energy Acquires Western Desert Producer APEX">
" alt="Baker Hughes Announces Major Gas Technology Orders for Venture Global LNG">
" alt="ReconAfrica: Naingopo Results Demonstrate a Working Petroleum System">
" alt="Tullow Highlights 2025 Operational Plans in Ghana">
" alt="TotalEnergies to Supply 1.5 TWh to STMicroelectronics in France Over 15 years">
" alt="Rockhopper Reaches Final Settlement with United on Egypt’s Abu Sennan Concession">
" alt="Oil & Gas Crucial for African Growth: AEC Calls for Industry Support to Defend African Market">
