Woodside dismisses Far's claim to a bigger slice of oilfield pie

Woodside dismisses Far's claim to a bigger slice of oilfield pie

International barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC will be watching from the other side of the bar table when one of his family’s major investments, Far Limited, presses on with its international case against Woodside in the next few weeks.

At the investor day yesterday, Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman said an upcoming International Court of Arbitration hearing in Paris over the SNE project off the coast of Senegal was just noise.

However, for Far it’s more than that and the Australian-based African energy company is seemingly not backing down in its fight against Woodside.

Far, which is led by Nick Lim, has a market capitalisation of $529.7 million compared with Woodside, which sits at $31 billion. Also involved is British outfit Cairn Energy and the Senegalese government.

The ownership structure of the SNE deepwater oilfield is under dispute between Far and Woodside.

Cairn Energy has a 40 per cent stake in the project, Woodside has the 35 per cent it picked up off ConocoPhillips in 2016, Far has 10 per cent and the government has the rest.

Far claims its pre-emptive rights were overlooked and it should have been granted the option to buy the stake ahead of Woodside.

Far has brought in Credit Suisse to advise alongside US law firm Thompson and Knight and Baker McKenzie in Australia.

The International Court of Arbitration hearing will be held in Paris and is expected to begin in the next few weeks. The parties involved believe it will last about three months.

Lawyers on the case will be closely watched by Far’s second largest investor, Farjoy, the investment trust run by barrister brothers Geoffrey and Tim Robertson. Cairn Energy is the operator of the SNE well but is due to hand over that role to Woodside in September.

If Far was successful in the arbitration, it could take control of Woodside’s 35 per cent but for a company of its size paying for that stake is an obvious question.

It could look for funding by farming out the stake to another player or putting together a refinancing package to help contribute towards its joint development costs.

SNE is considered one of the largest global deep water oil discoveries.

When it bought the stake, Woodside estimates that the SNE discovery contains 560 million barrels of recoverable oil.