Ophir Energy in its 2016 half-year results and operational update announced plans to take advantage of the low cost environment by resuming its drilling campaign.
The company posted a pre-tax loss of $70million for the first half of 2016 with its revenue amounting to $52million, compared to last year’s $86million.

According to Ophir, the Fortuna project in Equatorial Guinea is now an economical project ready for a final investment decision (FID).

The oil and gas exploration company added that it completed upstream FEED on Fortuna FLNG project and locked in low cost solutions until mid-2017 as discussions with possible value chain partners continues.

“In Equatorial Guinea, Fortuna is now a low cost upstream project, ‘technically ready’ for FID and we are constructing a value chain that offers potentially the most cost-effective Greenfield LNG supply available today. Ophir will progress the monetization of Fortuna in a way that protects Ophir’s balance sheet that actively manages our exposure to development risk,” it said.

The company also announced that during H1 of this year, it withdrew from several licences and entered Block CI-513 in the Ayame prospect in Ivory Coast, which is expected to be drilled in mid-2017. It progressed an oil play in Block R, together with Exxon in Equatorial Guinea with drill or drop decision to be arrived at in 2017 and mapped several leads and prospects with multi-hundred million barrel potential on the Olumi Rouge 3D in Nkouere & Nkawa Blocks, Gabon.

“Ophir’s strategy is to be a sustainable explorer, focused on delivering NAV per share growth by finding (securing) resources at low cost and then monetizing them in the way that maximizes the price achieved. Having spent two years high-grading our exploration portfolio, we are now preparing to return to a considered, prudent pace of exploration drilling from late 2016 to take advantage of the significantly lower exploration costs, while continuing to focus on monetizing our previous exploration successes,” Nick Cooper (photo), Chief executive of Ophir told Energy Voice.
 

Anita Fatunji