In December 2015, African Petroleum (APCL) announced it had entered into a farm-down agreement with Ophir Energy over its CI-513 licence area. On 10 March the transaction completed. This will trigger a payment of US$16.9m towards APCL’s back costs, provide it with a well-funded partner and is a vote of confidence in its asset quality. The deal was made possible by the flexibility shown by the Côte d’Ivoire government to make fiscal terms more attractive and the extended drilling timetable, which is important in the current macro environment. The cash payment will fund APCL to continue to farm down its other assets in West Africa, many of which are close to recent discoveries in Senegal and Mauritania. We await further deals and the probable announcement of drilling in 2017.
