Article in the Australian..
======================
Cairn and Far look to cash in on $4bn project off West Africa
By
BRIDGET CARTER
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS EDITOR
@BridgetCarterb
13 MINUTES AGO MAY 7, 2019
Oil and gas explorer Far Limited and Cairn Energy are understood to have hired an adviser to sell a stake in the $US3 billion ($4.27bn) SNE development in Senegal.
It is thought that Royal Bank of Canada could have the mandate to sell the interest, expected to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The SNE project based off the coast of the West African country is 15 per cent-owned by Far, while Cairn owns about 40 per cent, and a collective 30 per cent is being sold by the pair.
The other owners are the operator, Woodside Petroleum, which holds 35 per cent, and Petrosen, which is the Senegalese National Oil Company, with 10 per cent.
Flyers have already been sent out to offshore groups, and one party expected to show interest is PTT out of Thailand.
The SNE deepwater oilfield discovery is offshore, 100km south of Dakar.
It was the largest oil discovery for 2014 and production is first targeted for 2022, with the production capacity estimated at 100,000 barrels per day.
Far last week announced it was raising $45 million via a placement through Bell Potter to fund its ongoing interest in the SNE Field development.
Far remains in arbitration with ConocoPhillips over the sale of Senegal assets, where ConocoPhillips offloaded its interest in the SNE project in 2016 to Woodside for $US430m.
The dispute centres on Far’s right to pre-empt the sale of the interest.
Hearings in the International Court of Arbitration were being held in Paris last year.
Far says it was not given timely access to data it needed to make a decision on whether to activate its pre-emptive rights.
Woodside has previously said the Far claims have no merit and appears to see little threat from the arbitration.
At its most extreme end point, the arbitration could result in Woodside having to hand over its stake in the field to the $300m Far and a joint venture partner able to pay the $US1.2bn.
A more likely result, if Far is successful, would be that Woodside would be forced to the negotiating table to settle the issue with Far.
Expand
(20min delay)