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Anglo African Oil & Gas warns it won’t be able to drill new Tilapia well as planned

Published: 07:55 12 Dec 2019 GMT

Anglo African Oil & Gas PLC - Anglo African Oil & Gas warns it won’t be able to drill new Tilapia well as planned

Anglo African Oil & Gas PLC (LON:AAOG) has told investors it is taking steps to cut costs amid missing payments from the Congolese authorities and as such it warned it may not be able to drill the proposed TLP-103C-ST well.

Some US$5.3mln is due for work at the Tilapia field in the Republic of the Congo, and the AIM-quoted company is now assessing its funding options.

Additionally, AAOG noted that it has recently been informed by its rig contractor that a previously optioned rig won’t be available until June 2020 at the earliest, though it has identified two other rig options to allow an earlier mobilisation.

“The budget for the planned work programme to be carried out on the Tilapia field in the Republic of the Congo requires recovery of the contributions due from Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC) and timely future contributions by SNPC towards its cost,” the company said in a statement.

“While the company is pressing SNPC hard for repayment of the outstanding debt, which is currently in excess of US$5.3 million, it has not received any repayments since the announcement on 19 September 2019. The company has formally requested the oil minister to coordinate a meeting in January with SNPC and AAOG to resolve this highly unsatisfactory situation so that the work programme, or a modified plan, can proceed,” it added.

The company said that mediation in the Autumn was unsuccessful and it is continuing vigorously to pursue legal proceedings in the Paris courts.

It added that the next procedural hearing was set for 5 February 2020.

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