ConocoPhillips sells Senegal assets to Woodside

Australia’s Woodside is expanding into Africa with the acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ assets in Senegal.

Under a binding Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA) Woodside will buy all of ConocoPhillips’ interests in Senegal for the purchase price of $350 million, based on an effective date of 1 January 2016, plus a completion adjustment of approximately $80 million.

With the acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ Senegal assets, Woodside will get access to the SNE and FAN deep-water oil discoveries. SNE is one of the largest global deepwater oil discoveries since 2014. Woodside estimates that the SNE discovery contains 560 MMbbl of recoverable oil (at the 2C confidence level, 100%).

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the acquisition aligned with the company’s growth strategy by providing a significant position in an underexplored and highly prospective emerging oil province. The SNE and FAN discoveries opened up the basin, and recently completed appraisal work has proven up high-quality resources.

“We are taking advantage of our balance sheet to acquire a world-class asset that fits well with our capabilities, offers significant future upside in exploration and line-of-sight to near-term oil production. 

“It builds on our agreement to acquire a 65% interest in the AGC Profond exploration block located to the south in the Senegal-Guinea Bissau joint development zone and extends our regional focus in West Africa.

He said Woodside was looking forward to working with the Government of Senegal and joint venture participants Cairn Energy, FAR Limited, and Petrosen, the Senegal National Oil Company, to progress the commercial development of SNE and any future discoveries.

“Woodside will bring to the joint venture expertise in deep water drilling, development and operation of subsea infrastructure and floating production storage and offloading vessels,” he said.

Completion of the PSA is subject to satisfaction of customary conditions, including Government of Senegal approval and pre-emption and is targeting close by year-end 2016.