BOWLEVEN, the West Africa focused oil and gas firm, has said it expects to start exploration drilling onshore Cameroon next month, writes Mark Williamson.
The Edinburgh-based firm said drilling will start on the first well on the Bomono licence, Zingana, in February following "some minor logistical issues which have now been resolved".
In December Bowleven said drilling operations were expected to commence on Bomono around the end of the year.
Yesterday the company, led by chief executive Kevin Hart, said civil engineering activities continue with the preparation of the second well site, Moambe.
The well will be the first drilled onshore Cameroon by Bowleven, which has focused activity in the waters off the country to date.
The bulk of the well costs will be paid by privately-owned Africa Fortesa Corp, in exchange for a 20 per cent stake in the licence.
Aim-listed Bowleven has funding in place to carry its agreed share of up to around $15m of the cost of the wells.
Bowleven is waiting to complete a $250m deal to sell a total 50 per cent interest in the Etinde permit off Cameroon, which it agreed in June.
The company is awaiting formal written notification and gazetting of a decree by Cameroon's president Biya approving the deal.
On 9 January Bowleven said the formal decree approving the assignment of interests in Etinde to Russia's LUKOIL and Cameroon's New Age had been signed by the president.
It noted then that formal written notification and the gazetting of the decree was the final condition of the Etinde farm-out.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article