Sintana Energy Inc. has acquired an initial 49% stake in Giraffe Energy Investments Pty. Ltd., which holds a 33% interest in Namibia’s petroleum exploration license 79 (PEL 79) for blocks 2815 and 2915.
Sintana acquired its initial 49 percent interest in Giraffe for a cash consideration of $2 million, it said in a news release. The company retains an option to increase its ownership up to 67 percent of Giraffe “any time over the five years following closing based on the shares issued and outstanding at the time of the option exercise for an additional cash payment at the time of exercise of $1 million.”.
Blocks 2815 and 2915 are located inside blocks operated by BW Energy, Rhino Resources, and Shell plc, according to Sintana.
The acquisition follows a definitive agreement effective April 24 with private Namibian companies Crown Energy Pty. Ltd. and Giraffe. The National Petroleum Corp. of Namibia (NAMCOR) is currently the operator with a 67 percent interest in PEL 79.
The acquisition provides Sintana with “an attractive entry into a high-impact license with significant upside,” the company said in an earlier statement, adding that Namibia’s Orange Basin is emerging as “the world’s next hydrocarbon province.”.
In April, Sintana announced that Chevron Namibia Exploration Limited (CNEL), an affiliate of Chevron Corp., executed an agreement effective April 28 that provides for CNEL’s entry into Petroleum Exploration License 82 (PEL 82) with the assumption of an 80 percent working interest and operatorship.
NAMCOR and Custos Energy (Pty) Ltd. will each maintain a 10 percent carried interest in PEL 82, while Sintana maintains an indirect 49 percent interest in Custos.
PEL 82 governs blocks 2112B and 2212A, located in the Walvis Basin, offshore Namibia. PEL 82 is one of the Walvis Basin’s most attractive opportunities, according to an earlier news release.
Sintana noted that approximately 70 percent of the total block area in PEL 82 is covered by existing seismic data of over 2,174.8 miles (3,500 kilometers) of 2D and 3,669 square miles (9,500 square kilometers) of 3D. The asset’s previous drilling activity includes the Murombe-1 and Wingat-1 wells.
Sintana is engaged in petroleum and natural gas exploration and development activities on five large, highly prospective onshore and offshore petroleum exploration licenses in Namibia and in Colombia’s Magdalena basin.
In other Namibia-related developments, Angola-based Azule Energy, an independent joint venture of BP and Eni, closed its first international deal with a farm-in agreement with Rhino Resources Namibia in May. The agreement will grant Azule a 42.5 percent interest in Block 2914A in petroleum exploration license PEL85, located offshore Namibia.
According to an earlier report, the current contractor group of PEL85 consists of Rhino as operator with an 85 percent stake, National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) with 10 percent, and local company Korres Investments Pty Ltd with five percent.
