UK player inks acquisition and farm-out deals for assets off Africa

After signing one agreement to buy and two agreements to sell some of its stakes in assets offshore Namibia and Cameroon, local subsidiaries of the UK-based oil and gas company Tower Resources are seeking partner and government approvals for the transactions.

As disclosed by the UK player on March 7, 2025, Tower Resources Namibia Limited (TRNL) has agreed to purchase 5%, or half of the 10% interest its partner ZM Fourteen Investment holds in the PEL96 license offshore Namibia, for a cash consideration on completion of $375,000. ZM’s remaining interest in the PEL96 license will be fully carried through to production, as well as the 10% interest held by the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR). 

Before that, Tower inked two farm-out agreements with Prime Global Energies in January 2025. Under the deals, Prime acquired a 25% non-operated interest in PEL96 for $2,500,000 cash on completion and a 42.5% non-operated interest in the Thali license off Cameroon in exchange for $15,000,000 cash contribution towards the Thali work program and drilling of the NJOM-3 well in 2025, as well as further payments. 

Following the completion of the latest acquisition from ZM, and the farm-out of a 25% interest in the license to Prime, TRNL will have a 60% operating interest in PEL96, and Prime 25%, with NAMCOR and ZM having 10% and 5% carried interests, respectively.

After obtaining ZM’s consent to the farm-out agreement with Prime, TRNL now needs to get NAMCOR’s approval for both transactions, after which documents will be forwarded to the country’s Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) for approval. 

Tower Resources Chairman & CEO, Jeremy Asher, commented: “We are pleased with the progress we are making and also with the acquisition of this small additional interest in the Namibian PEL96 from our local partner ZM. This acquisition reflects our wish for ZM to move to a more sustainable fully-carried position, and also reflects our faith in the value of the PEL96 license at the same time that we are bringing in a new partner to manage risk and share funding obligations.”

In Cameroon, Tower Resources Cameroon SA (TRCSA) submitted the documentation for its farm-out agreement with Prime and the request for a year’s further extension of the first exploration period of the Thali license to Cameroon’s Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development for approval in January.

Tower now expects to get the necessary authorizations for the Cameroon and Namibia deals at the end of March.

Since production-based payment agreements for the Thali license were in place with Pegasus Petroleum, the latter is set to get a portion of profits from oil sales from Thali.

The UK firm also claims to have received offers for several rigs available between June and December 2025 and hopes to make a rig selection decision at the end of March or in April.

“We are already working hard on the well planning in Cameroon, as we are confident about the approval process, and want to ensure we are ready to drill the NJOM-3 well in good time. Forward planning usually improves both time and budget performance. I look forward to keeping you updated with our further progress,” noted Asher.

Tower hired Borr Drilling’s Norve jack-up rig to drill the NJOM-3 well in late 2023 when the rig was expected to start the drilling job in 3Q 2024. When sharing news of a potential farm-out agreement in October 2024, the UK player bumped the drilling target date to early 2025.

Later that month, Tower said that it received an updated and more detailed offer for the Cameroon asset farm-out, but that it was still in discussions with other interested players.

Earlier today, it was reported that the Norve rig finished a drilling job with BW Energy in neighboring Ghana.