African Petroleum blocks Banjul from cashing in on SNE The...

African Petroleum blocks Banjul from cashing in on SNE

The colossal Senegalese discoveries have bumped up the value of the assets removed from the British junior but the on-going arbitration has Banjul worried.

Gambia's minister of oil, Fafa Sanyang, may be acting as if everything is hunky-dory after the government took back blocks A1 and A4 from African Petroleum (AP) in 2017, though from behind the doors at the ministry the tension is palpable. While the two offshore permits have caught the attention of a host of companies, Woodside Energy and Tullow Oil have already expressed their interest, the oil ministry continues to push back the end of the selection process. The deadline for tenders was extended from December 6 last year to January 10 and then again to February 18. Now, two weeks after the official end of the submission period the Gambian authorities have still not closed the door to potential new investors.

What the State is actually trying to do is gain time. According to our sources, while the official reason for the delay is due to interest shown in the assets and the need to review oil contracts in the country - in light of the giant SNE discoveries in neighbouring Senegal -, the real reason is a of a legal nature. No major company is willing to make an acquisition while the arbitration launched by AP, partly owned by Australian magnate Frank Timis, is still pending before the International Court for Settlement of Investor Disputes(ICSID).

The experienced Gambian minister of justice and former lawyer of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, took over the file several weeks ago and is said to be pushing for an amicable settlement with AP. According to our sources within the oil ministry, Tambadou's services spoke with several current and former government officials to have a clear view of the on-going arbitration. Their findings seem conclusive: at the end of the costly process, Gambia has tasked Cherie Blair's law firm Omnia Strategy to defend the country's interests (AEI 811), there is absolutely no guarantee that its decision to strip AP of the permits will be validated.

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