Case of Rufisque blocks and deep offshore Senegal South: A...

Case of Rufisque blocks and deep offshore Senegal South: A compromise to three between Senegal, Total and Apcl found
May 3, 2018 La Redaction 0 Comment

Senegal could narrowly avoid legal litigation before the Paris Arbitral Tribunal. According to some sources, the international oil company African Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (Apcl), headed by Jens Pace, a company listed on the Oslo stock exchange in Norway, which since 2011 had owned the Rufisque research blocks Deep Offshore (Rop) and Senegal Deep Offshore Deep (Sosp), is about to reach an amicable agreement with the Government of Senegal over litigation relating to the withdrawal of its blocks. Jens Pace had not approved the cavalier way in which the Ministry of Energy, under the leadership of Thierno Alassane SALL, had removed one of its two blocks deep Senegalese offshore.

Today, APCL would be willing to relinquish its complaint before the Court of Arbitration of Commerce of Paris, the jurisdictional authority authorized to know the different between the State of Senegal and this company, if the conciliation procedure started, proved conclusive.

The point of agreement between APCL and the State of Senegal, according to our sources, could relate to the possibility of granting an extension (extension of the period of validity) of its second research contract the CRPP of the block of Senegal Offshore South Deep (Sosp), covering the deep waters south of The Gambia, which was in its second period of validity. On this block, also granted in 2011, APCL had largely fulfilled its work commitments which consisted of the purchase from Petrosen of existing data and the realization of 2500 km² of 3D seismic. In the end, it would have made 3600 km² which gave it the right to the first renewal of this contract in 2014. Since last year, it would require an extension of the period of validity of this first renewal to have enough time to achieve the drilling commitment required. With the participation of a dozen oil companies ready to join her, APCL only waiting for the green light from the Senegalese government. In exchange, APCL would be willing not to wear its own with the State of Senegal on the withdrawal of Block Rufisque Offshore Deep which had meanwhile been awarded to the French company Total, in May 2017; this is all the more so, according to sources close to the case, TOTAL would be willing to offer APCL interest or a fee in the context of the conciliation agreement that would avoid the parties a long and tedious judicial procedure and probably the suspension of research work.

It will be remembered that APCL has engaged the services of the dreaded Parisian law firm Betto Seraglini to lead the mediation with the State of Senegal following the abusive withdrawal of the Deep Offshore Rufisque block.

It should be noted that the granting of research blocks in October 2011, APCL immediately created, to be represented in Senegal a local subsidiary, African Petroleum Senegal SAU which employed about ten people, in accordance with regulatory provisions in the field. It also reportedly spent more than $ 4 million on data from Petrosen. It would also have financed the purchase of computer equipment and technical software for the Petrosen staff and the Ministry of Energy, financed the promotion and training, and carried out the reprocessing and reinterpretation of the data acquired from Petrosen. In total, APCL spent just over US $ 50 million in its six years of presence in Senegal. APCL's overall investment in Senegal during the 2011-2017 period is approximately fifty million US dollars, or 25 billion CFA francs.

At the social level, in terms of office and apartment design, furniture and office equipment, transport equipment, office and apartment rents, salaries and other expenses, APCL spent nearly 930 millions of CFA francs.

Jacques N SARR, Mediaspost.com

https://mediaspost.com/2018/05/03/f...-trois-entre-le-senegal-total-et-apcl-trouve/