Sterling Energy subsidiary Sterling Cameroon Ltd. has issued a notice of surrender in relation to the Ntem Concession, offshore Cameroon, effective by the end of December 2016.
The company does not expect to incur any material costs associated with the surrender.
“We are disappointed that we have been unable to reach an acceptable solution for all parties to advance operational activity on the Ntem Concession,” Eskil Jersing, Sterling CEO said. “Given the declaration of force majeure in May 2014, the remaining potential on the block and the challenging macro landscape, we have made the decision to formally surrender the Ntem Block. Our focus remains on securing transformative, exploitation led M&A opportunities.”
The Ntem concession area is a deepwater block situated in the southern Douala / Rio Muni Basin and lies adjacent to the northern maritime border of the Rio Muni province of Equatorial Guinea. Water depths range from 400-2000m, east to west across the block.
In January 2014 the joint venture partners and Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), the national oil company of Cameroon, agreed to lift the declaration of force majeure in order to allow exploration activities to proceed; 15 months of the first exploration phase remained with a one well drilling commitment to be completed.
In 2015, operations within the Ntem concession area were suspended under the force majeure provisions of the licence owing to an overlapping maritime border claim between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
Read more:
Subscribe
