Petroleum Africa
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Thursday, October 10, 2013
The government of South Africa has approved the transfer of offshore Block 2A to Sunbird Energy. The block includes the Ibhubesi Gas Project. Sunbird now has a controlling interest of 76%, with South Africa’s state-run firm PetroSA holding the remaining 24%.
Since announcing the acquisition in December of 2012, Sunbird has rapidly progressed the development of the Ibhubesi Gas Project delivering a series of major milestones, including the completion of a feasibility study. The feasibility study confirmed the technical and commercial viability of the project. Sunbird Energy also saw an independent certification of reserves which equal 540 Bcf (2P), and successfully completed concept select engineering studies.
Having completed the concept select phase of the Project, Sunbird has now commenced field development planning as part of the FEED phase; this will enable the project to reach a FID in early 2015.
Sunbird Energy’s Chairman Kerwin Rana said, “Sunbird, along with our South African empowerment partner Umbono Capital, is very pleased with this outcome. We were particularly happy with the extremely professional and timely handling of the approvals process by the regulators. This approval represents the achievement of a critical milestone for Sunbird, by consolidating our position as the operator of South Africa’s largest and most advanced undeveloped gas field with a significant 76% working interest.
“The transfer allows us to now focus on securing a gas market which will further unlock the significant value of the Project’s proven reserves base and large exploration potential. On our current economic modeling of the 2P reserves base, the Project has a potential Net Present Value of over $1 billion,” he added.
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