Total still in the game... but not sure how they are gonna get a foot in Senegal oil... through FAR or Cairn?... time will tell... Senegal-France: Sharpshooters against oil?
Source:: Seneweb.com | April 18, 2017 at 19:04:58 | Read 8116 times |
Senegal-France: Sharpshooters against oil? Simple coincidence?Let me doubt it ... While Medef and Senegalese employers met last week in Dakar, to boost their partnership - and this, first and foremost in oil - at an official ceremony, Francois Hollande issued French nationality on Saturday to Senegalese riflemen.The latter, now aged between 78 and 90 years, fought in the ranks of the French army during the Second World War.However, they have not been recognized since then as French citizens in their own right.
A situation promised to repair the French President last December, during an official meeting with his counterpart, Macky Sall. The president of the Senegalese Republic, who was on a state visit to France, said at the same time that the prospect of an intervention by the French oil giant Total in the exploitation of offshore Senegalese oil was a "positive" point for the Senegal. In this way, the two files were linked. Now, of course, the link is more discreet, but it remains very real.
The Mouvement des Entreprises de France (Medef) -international and the Senegalese National Council of Business (CNP) have thus affirmed this week wanting to boost their partnership. Beyond the so-called "traditional" sectors, the two employers' organizations want to extend their collaboration in the prospects that Senegal wants to offer, in particular in oil and gas. The country now offers significant potential in the field, including French Total does not wish to be dismissed.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Senegalese Public Administration, the Minister of Labor, Mansour S, experts from the Agency for Investment Promotion and Major Works of the State (APIX) and the office In charge of monitoring the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE).
"The Cnp invited its partners in the administration and several business leaders to promote the fruitful exchanges and joint ventures between the businessmen of the Medef international and the Cnp", said at the meeting. Senegalese press Baïdy Agne, the president of the NPC. While stressing that last February, at the company's foundation, a national symposium had been organized on the participation of nationals in new industries. Among the arguments put forward then was the fact that Senegalese companies were not equipped with all the capacities required to explore and exploit oil.
Baïdy Agne nevertheless wanted to make clear that the exploitation of gas and oil involved civil engineering, construction and logistics for which the Senegalese are competent. But the Senegalese companies will not be slow to position themselves in order not to be caught the share of a coveted coveted. One of the major challenges of the current discussions.
The president of the Cnp also recalled that France was the first investor in Senegal with a stock of FDI of 1.7 billion euros. French companies in Senegal account for almost a quarter of the country's GDP and tax revenues. Baïdy Agne now wants "more responsibility and commitment" in the "Franco-Senegalese solidarity". "This is how we can strengthen our comparative advantages relative to the rest of the world and make our interests prevail at the level of regional and international cooperation organizations," he said.
In the end, the National Council of Employers (CNP) invited French businessmen to invest more in Senegal, in companies co-led with local economic operators. Baïdy Agne declaring that Senegal needed a "more attractive economic environment of flows of French direct investment creating wealth and sustainable jobs".
Patrice Fonlladosa, chairman of the Africa committee of MEDEF International, welcomed the discussions between the CNP and the delegation of 45 bosses representing 37 French companies, which he led to Senegal for two days. Considering the assessment of the meeting as "very positive", he invited French companies to develop partnerships with those of Senegal. "The talks we had this morning with the Prime Minister and other members of the Senegalese government are very encouraging because they should make it possible to put French companies in a very favorable situation in Senegal," he said.
"We do not want to come and do business and leave. We want to establish a long-term presence in Senegal and contribute to the growth of the country by supporting youth employment, technology transfer and investment, "added Fonlladosa. If "the sectors are multiple", he believes, above all, to invest in energy, transport and agri-food.
This meeting comes when, last December, Macky Sall declared in an official speech at the Elysée that the fact that Total wants to exploit the offshore Senegalese was a positive point for Senegal. However, adding that the conditions for this intervention remained to be defined in accordance with the provisions of the Senegalese Petroleum Code.
The Senegalese head of state spoke in the context of the signing of a cooperation agreement between Senegal and Total for deep offshore oil, signed by Momar Nguer of Total and Thierno Alassane Sall, The Energy. It should be noted that since April 2016, Momar Nguer-Senegalese has been promoted from Director of Africa-Middle-East Marketing & Services to the position of General Manager of the Marketing & Services branch and member of the Executive Committee of the Total Group.
Macky Sall then made it clear that the entry of Total in the exploration of Senegalese oil did not yet call into question the agreements signed previously with the other oil companies.
In addition to the agreement with Total, Senegal and France also signed a € 193 million protocol to accompany the Regional Express Train (TER) project, which is to reach Dakar at the new Blaise Diagne International Airport (50 Km), which is expected to open in the coming months. "Oil discovered in Senegal is of interest to France"
In September 2016, Manuel Valls, the then Prime Minister, had already stated bluntly in a Senegalese TV program "Direct Questions" that "oil discovered in Senegal is of interest to France". A statement made after an official visit to Senegal and the January 2016 announcement by the Senegalese head of state of the discovery of a large natural gas deposit in a prospecting area in the Senegal Northern part of the St. Louis deep offshore license.
This discovery, deemed significant, is considered to be the most important deposit in West Africa because it is made up of a large structure distributed on both sides of the border between Senegal and Mauritania, with reserves estimated at 450 billion Of m3. It follows a discovery of the company Cairn Energy, dating from 2014, consisting of a deposit of oil in the prospecting area of Sangomar deep offshore, 1,427 meters deep, off Foundiougne, in west-central Senegal .
Cairn Energy had estimated these reserves between 250 million and 2.5 billion barrels, but in August 2016 Cairn Energy upgraded the SNE field reserves on the Sangomar Offshore Profond block. According to the Scottish group, they could exceed 2.7 billion barrels.
Cairn Energy operates three oil exploration blocks in Senegal (Sangomar Deep, Sangomar and Rufisque), where it holds a 40% stake, alongside Australian FAR (15%) and Senegalese national oil company Petrosen (10% ) And the Australian Woodside, which recently acquired the shares of American Conoco Philips (3%) to the displeasure of FAR, which relies on a right of preemption on these assets. Senegal at the heart of the trans-African gas pipeline project Nigeria / Morocco
At the beginning of December, in a video published on the Nigerian Presidency's Twitter account, Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama confirmed that a project to extend a trans-African gas pipeline from Nigeria to Morocco to continue Up to Europe, was under discussion between the two countries. Confirming the information published by the Moroccan site specialized Economy-Enterprises.
This project could thus turn the tip to Russia, the EU's main supplier of gas. The head of the Nigerian diplomacy also indicated that it was a pipeline destined for the transport of gas which would "cross all the West African coast to Morocco and possibly Europe".
As a reminder, the Nigerian authorities have already set up a pipeline managed by the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), whose main vocation is to transport natural gas from Nigeria to markets in Benin, Togo And Ghana. The cost of this pipeline, which began operations in 2010 and is now operational since 2005, is estimated at $ 974 million.
The objective of the gas pipeline project between Morocco and Nigeria would be to extend the pipeline, which currently runs through only four countries (Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana) to Morocco via Dakar, the Senegalese capital. The project to extend the pipeline to Senegal has been validated by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States).
In August 2016, on the occasion of the workshop on the validation of the interim final report on the feasibility study for the extension of the West African Gas Pipeline System (GAO) In Dakar, Mor Ndiaye Mbaye, director of the Cabinet of the Minister of Energy and Renewable Energy Development of Senegal, said that "diversifying energy sources and using clean energy to meet environmental challenges was a major challenge "For the region and for Senegal in particular.
He added that "Senegal's efforts to improve its energy situation have made it possible, among other things, to make important discoveries of natural gas, the exploitation of which will enable the country to increase its electricity production and export gas Natural resources to other States in the region ". Faced with such an opportunity for Senegal, he welcomed the ECOWAS initiative, which he said would strengthen the development of the energy sector in the region.
Experts from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo and Senegal attended the validation workshop. Everyone wishing to enjoy the cake ...
This project is "all the more justified because our region is full of large quantities of natural gas, of which Nigeria alone holds 90% of the revenues and 30% of Africa's reserves, not to mention Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire Which are already producers and consumers of natural gas, "Morlaye Bangoura, Commissioner for Energy and Mines of the Commission of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said.
In order to reinforce his remarks, he also cited "recent discoveries of large natural gas deposits in Senegal, Niger, as well as the upcoming exploitation of new discoveries in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, 'A promising future for this energy source in our region'.
According to Economy-Enterprises, Morocco has already been able to obtain the accession of several countries of West Africa for this multi-billion dollar project. The Moroccan media also asserted that Rabat and Abuja would soon sign a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the pipeline.
Mohammed VI thus seems to be ahead of Algeria, a country that began negotiations with the Nigerian government in 2002 for a similar project across the Sahel. However, the project remained a dead letter for funding and security reasons.
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