Interesting article..... this guy has been 'on the money' all...

Interesting article..... this guy has been 'on the money' all the way...imo

Sall eyes Senegal elections
Barry Morgan

28 Jun 2017 16:27 GMT
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Senegal goes to the polls on 30 July to vote in parliamentary elections that President Macky Sall hopes will cement in power a ruling coalition led by his own Republican Alliance for another five years, overseeing the country’s emergence in 2021 as an oil producer, writes Barry Morgan.

A geologist and former director general of state-owned Petrosen, Sall aims within days to present a progressive re-draft of the 1998 Petroleum Code to the electorate with whom he needs to reaffirm his status as Senegal’s Mr Oil — with ambitious transparency and local content provisions.

In reality, no such package can be debated, let alone ratified, before a new legislature is elected and committees assigned, suggesting legal overhaul of the upstream regime will not see light of day until mid-2018.

Lack of competitive tenders and overly complex award procedures characterise the existing system, where multiple ministries and state agencies can create delay and confusion.

However, this looks set to end with Petrosen recast as a one-stop shop for new entrants negotiating production sharing contracts.

Upstream understands that there will be no discrete statute focused on local content, but a rather more flexible set of provisions administered by a state regulator — specifically tapping the experiences of Nigeria and Ghana to discover the most effective accounting procedures.

Meanwhile, suitors can opt under existing rules to enter Senegal’s shelf edge play by farming into acreage currently held by minnows under increasing pressure to drill or drop.

Sall’s staunch ally and financier-technocrat, Prime Minister Mahammad Dionne, now holds sway in the Ministry of Energy.

Now moving into his second term, Sall seeks to ensure a steady flow of foreign direct investment to a sector buoyed by investor confidence.

Sources said what he does not want is three years of protracted litigation weakening the core of a consortium responsible for Cairn Energy's flagship SNE project and threatening sovereign risk downgrade.

Australian explorer Far Ltd’s decision to take ConocoPhillips to the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris to arbitrate a dispute over the joint operating agreement that covers SNE may take a heavy toll, potentially risking huge sums, counter-claims and possibly delaying the project.

Country watchers suggested this dispute offers ammunition to opposition groups keen to heap calumny upon a presidency accused of nepotism as well as maladministration of upstream patrimony.