Qatar Petroleum Farms In To Total Assets
Total and Qatar Petroleum have strengthened their international partnership by signing agreements under which Qatar Petroleum will farm in to Total-held exploration acreage in Namibia, Guyana and Kenya.
Namibia
Total will transfer to Qatar Petroleum a 30 percent interest in Block 2913B and retain a 40 percent interest. Total will also transfer to Qatar Petroleum 28.33 percent in Block 2912 and retain 37.78 percent. The deepwater blocks are located in the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia. A first exploration well is scheduled to be drilled next year on Block 2913B.
Guyana
Qatar Petroleum will have 40 percent of the company holding Total’s existing 25 percent interests in the Orinduik and Kanuku blocks, adjacent to the Stabroek Block in the prolific offshore Guyana Basin. Total will retain the remaining 60 percent of this company. Following the Jethro discovery on the Orinduik license earlier this month, a second exploration well (Joe-1) is being drilled on the same block. A third (Carapa-1) is planned for later this year on the Kanuku license.
Kenya
With ENI, Total will transfer a combined 25 percent interest in Blocks L11A, L11B and L12 to Qatar Petroleum. Total’s interest will be reduced from 45 to 33.75 percent. All three blocks are located in Kenya’s deep offshore. An exploration well is planned for Block L11B in 2020.
Earlier Deals
Qatar Petroleum became a shareholder of Total E&P Congo in 2013, acquiring 15 percent of its share capital. In 2018, Total transferred a 25 percent working interest to Qatar Petroleum in the 11B/12B license it operates in South Africa, site of the recent Brulpadda discovery.
Westwood: Qatar Petroleum Bucks the Trend
In the 2000s, national oil companies (NOCs) investing abroad were viewed as new competition to the international oil companies (IOCs), says Westwood Senior Analyst Vikesh Mistry, as they began acquiring international assets to bolster security of supply for their growing economies, for energy diplomacy or to generate new profit streams. Westwood research shows that NOCs have participated in 270 high impact exploration wells outside of their home country since 2008.
“Though NOCs have retrenched exploration investment alongside the IOCs since the oil price crash of 2014, Qatar Petroleum has bucked the trend, building an international portfolio from scratch. It has participated in three high impact commercial discoveries already in 2019, two of which were high risk frontier discoveries opening new plays,” says Mistry.
“Qatar Petroleum has just farmed into deepwater Namibia, which follows 2019 entries into Guyana, Kenya and Morocco, having already entered Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Mozambique and South Africa in 2018. The company’s international exploration program has got off to an impressive start, with three commercial discoveries in South Africa, Cyprus and Guyana from its first four wells in 2019.”
Qatar Petroleum is set to be the most active international high impact NOC explorer through the end of 2021, participating in up to 20 wells at a level comparable to that of the supermajors, says Mistry.