Ophir Energy Plc on Friday announced that its partner Schlumberger has withdrawn from the Fortuna project in Equatorial Guinea.

According to the CEO of Ophir, Nick Cooper, the company was unable to finalize the agreement for the project based on the terms agreed on in January. He said talks are currently ongoing with other counterparties that can provide the finance.

Under the head of terms signed in January, Schlumberger had decided that it will take a 40% economic interest in the project.

The Fortuna project is regarded as Africa’s first deepwater independent floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. The project is estimated to produce 2.2 million tpy and the company currently holds an 80% working interest on the field.

However, Ophir has reposition its expectations for a first investment decision on the project as the company believes that it might take time to arrive at a binding deal with possible partners.

The company has said that a decision on first investment will now be made in the Q4 of 2016 and first production is to be expected by early 2020 as it had initially planned on making its investment decision in mid-2016, with production in 2019. “The Fortuna project workstreams are progressing towards FID. We have been reviewing a number of options and our discussions continue with other quality counterparties that can offer an attractive source of funding. In addition, the reduction in the capex to first gas has lowered the project breakeven oil price to approximately $40 per bbl. We continue to work closely with Golar, the prospective offtakers and the other potential partners and remain confident that we will take the FID in 2016,” Nick told Reuters.

Anita Fatunji