The British company Tower Resources announced, on June 30, the extension of the deadline for the sale of 24.5% of the shares held on the Thali block to the Australian company OilLR Pty. The end of negotiations, scheduled for June 30, is postponed to September 15, 2020.
The binding memorandum of understanding signed with OilLR Pty on February 28, 2020 and revised on March 29, 2020, “is progressing to completion,” said Tower Resources.
The British company, which currently has 100% control of the Thali block via its subsidiary Tower Resources Cameroon, hopes to have payment of the first tranche of the agreement concluded with OilLR Pty in late July or in the first half of August.
Tower Resources hopes to obtain $ 7.5 million upon completion of the divestment and evidence of financial capacity for another $ 15 million settlement, including funds the operator estimates it has already spent on the location of the Njom-3 well.
Contacts are also underway with other parties for the sale of another stake of up to 24.5% on terms similar to those offered to the Australian company.
Tower Resources CEO Jeremy Asher says the company needs the money to “normally” resume operations at Thali, including drilling a first well – Njom-3 – which is expected to cost between $ 15 and $ 16 million.
The first oil production on the Thali block, in the Rio del Rey sedimentary basin, east of the Niger Delta, is planned for 2021.
Tower Resources was to complete the drilling of a first well this year but the company seized the Cameroonian ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, in March 2020, to report a case of “force majeure” in its activities at Thali. She linked this force majeure to the restrictive measures taken by many countries, including Cameroon, to fight against the new coronavirus.
These measures do not allow service providers to travel, she said, among other things, justified in suspending the initial exploration period – of which there were approximately seven months left on March 17 – in order to resume it once force majeure lifted.
Tower Resources is currently advancing the date of September 15, 2020 for the drilling of Njom-3, “despite force majeure”.
The drilling of this well aims to present the thickness and characteristics of the reservoirs, in order to confirm the expected flows of the latter.
