NewAge eyes FPSO for 200m barrel project off Congo-Brazzaville
Floating production vessel eyed for shallow water fields as company considers equity and debt funding
Privately owned NewAge is eyeing the deployment of a floating production, storage and offloading vessel at a proposed 200 million barrel project in Congo-Brazzaville.
The FPSO would be installed in shallow-water Marine III block and is being considered to initially exploit an extension of Eni’s Nene oilfield in Block XII, where NewAge was a partner before offloading its stake to Lukoil in 2019 for $800 million in order to pay back investors.
“The sort of development we’re thinking of is an FPSO for quick monetisation and development,” NewAge’s head of operations David Peel told listeners at IN-VR’s Global E&P Summit last week.
He said the FPSO could come online in 2024 via 10 wells drilled from two wellhead platforms.
The Nene extension lies in less than 25 metres of water, close to shore and to the oilfield service base of Pointe Noire.
Peel said Nene Extension — which is due to be appraised next year — has the potential to flow about 20,000 barrels per day on plateau from “assumed” recoverable reserves of 200 million barrels, out of an estimated 500 million barrels of oil held within the reservoir.
While the FPSO would initially host output from Nene Extension, Peel outlined that the vessel could later be used handle additional production from more wellhead platforms installed on the M’Bafou and Banga Extension prospects if those prove to be commercial assets.
He said these new fields — exploited by about 10 and seven wells, respectively — could come online in 2026, and boost output from the FPSO to about 30,000 bpd.
Gas will “probably” be reinjected but could also be fed to an onshore power plant.
NewAge holds a 75% stake in Marine III and is looking to farm-out a proportion of this interest in return for funding towards drilling a $30 million delineation probe, including a well test, in the first quarter of 2022.
State-owned SNPC has a 25% carried interest in Marine III.
While Nene Extension is a low-risk opportunity, Peel’s presentation highlighted that undrilled prospects on the block could hold an estimated mean recoverable resource of 485 million barrels.
M’Bafou could house 320 million barrels of in-place oil reserves, with Banga’s equivalent figure being slightly smaller at about 260 million barrels.
The two biggest shareholders in NewAge are Chinese investment vehicle Hopu with 49%, while Kerogen private equity group controls just over 23%.
Two family businesses — Margin Finance and Topaz — control about 12% of the company between them.
"They are now thinking about the next step — getting more equity into the business, getting debt for our developments and them taking less of an investor profile.”
He said a medium-term goal for NewAge is to generate enough cash flow through projects in Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon and Nigeria – potentially about 40,000 bpd net by 2027 – that could result in the company being floated on a stock exchange.
In Cameroon, the company operates the Etinde condensate/gas project while it is a partner in the producing Aje field in Nigeria.
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