Ophir Energy remains locked in talks with an unidentified Asian lender about securing finance for its challenging Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas project off Equatorial Guinea, writes Iain Esau.

In December, London-listed Ophir delayed until early 2018 the finalisation of a critical $1.2 billion financing package for Fortuna after an earlier deal with a trio of Chinese banks fell through.

As a result, it turned to a single Asian lender but was unable to wrap up talks before the end of 2017.

In its latest trading statement, Ophir said once funding arrangements have been agreed, the FLNG project in Block R will proceed to a final investment decision.

However, unusually for Ophir, it declined to update its current FID target date which is still assumed to be early 2018.

Stephane Foucaud, an analyst with GMP FirstEnergy said: “We continue to see (Ophir’s) shares as fully valued with important execution risks at Fortuna.

"We note that the (trading) statement does not provide an update on the timing of reaching FID at Fortuna.”

Ophir is working with OneLNG — the Golar LNG-Schlumberger joint venture — on the project and forecasts it will spend $65 million on the FLNG scheme this year.

Ophir has previously said the project would come on line in 2021 via an FLNG unit with capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per annum.

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Ophir still in talks over Fortuna FLNG project funding