Three Places to Look for the Next Shale Boom
Nigeria has long been known for its oil riches. Angola has too, but decades of entrenched corruption have chased foreign investors away. Mentioned in this commentary includes: Chevron Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Halliburton Company, Schlumberger Limited.
Now Namibia is joining the African oil conversation with one of the most oil-friendly regimes on the continent. It is offering 5% royalties on what might just be a very productive shale play in Reconnaissance Africa’s Kavango Basin.
Emerging markets are where oil upside might be found these days but navigating them is a challenge.
Nigeria: How To Push Away Investors
Take Nigeria, for instance. As Africa’s largest producer of oil, Nigeria has outsized status in the hydrocarbons world. But the party is coming to an end from an investor’s standpoint.
Nigeria is home to about 37 billion barrels in oil reserves. And while it has some 32 active oil rigs out there, only 81 wells were completed last year – down from 141 in 2014.
Since oil prices started tumbling in 2014, the government has been taking more from oil companies, with back taxes and new legislation. Now, it wants majors Chevron, Shell and French Total to pay them around US$62 billion. It claims in was short-changed under a revenue-sharing agreement dating back to the 1990s.
Chevron is seeking to sell several Nigerian oilfields, and it is not the first: Exxon and Shell have both been reducing their footprint in the country. And it might get worse.
Now, Nigeria is proposing new legislation which would increase taxation on the oil industry. The bill would add another 3-10 percent in royalty rates at oil prices between US$50 and US$80 per barrel.
Nigeria’s current system gives Nigeria between 60 percent and 70 percent of all deep-water revenues, which includes taxes, royalties, along with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s share of production.
Angola: Reforms Which Might Not Be Enough
Angola, too, is a tough sell right now. Even though it is Africa’s second-largest producer, it has been mired in decades of highly entrenched corruption, and while there is a new regime in power and reforms are on the books, investors are not 100-percent sold on the idea.
Angola is hoping to sell stakes in state-run Sonangol oil company and a string of other energy companies. To do that, it is banking on major economic reforms to attract investors and bring in much-needed cash.
No-one has forgotten the gross mismanagement of Sonangol under its previous leadership, though, so the Angolan government is going to have to make people believe things have changed. Sonangol has a history it needs to overcome.
The goal is an IPO for Sonangol in 2022. Beyond that, the government is also hoping to lure investors into stakes in Puma Energy, the China-Sonangol oil venture, and the Ivory Coast SIR refinery. But it has only been two years since we saw a change of regime in Angola, and investors do not seem thoroughly convinced just yet.
In 2017, Joao Lourenco took power, ending the four-decade power play of Jose Eduardo dos Santos, along with his daughter’s destructive leadership of Sonangol. But two years may not be enough time to convince investors.
The government has made it easier for investors to repatriate money via commercial banks; it has made it possible to invest in the sector without a local partner; it cut taxes on some oilfields by 50%, creating an independent body for managing oil and gas concessions.
The first litmus test will likely come later this year with the attempted sale of stakes in the SIR refinery.
But in the meantime, some bigger potential has emerged on the continent:
Namibia: Starting From Zero
Namibia – a country which has never produced a barrel – is the newest venue reaching the investment radar screen. That is because it has potential for new discoveries at a time when they are increasingly hard to come by. Even better when it is in an investor-friendly regime.
The so-called “Land of the Brave” has an oil and gas friendly regime with only 5% royalties.
That is why Exxon recently acquired an additional seven million net acres from the government for a block extending from the shoreline to about 135 miles offshore in water depths up to 13,000 feet, with exploration activities to begin by the end of this year.
What Exxon is banking on is that Namibia, which according to theory once fit together with Brazil, shares the same geology as Brazil’s pre-salt basins, Santos and Campos, which have already proved resource-rich, according to Deloitte.
But there is also something onshore which has good potential. Shale, and a basin similar in size to the Eagle Ford basin in Texas. Welcome to the Kavango Basin.
Namibia’s Kavango Basin is part of the Karoo SuperGroup geology, and it is also considered to have the same depositional environment as Shell’s Whitehill Permian shale play in South Africa.
Kavango is a 6.3-million-acre basin which potentially holds undeveloped shale and conventional plays. The entire basin is owned by a junior company called Reconnaissance Energy Africa which recently received a 90% interest in the Petroleum Exploration Permit for the Kavango basin. The remaining 10% is owned by the Namibian state petroleum company.
When Reconnaissance Energy Africa took aeromagnetic data from the basin to the go-to geophysical interpreter Bill Cathey, according to Reconnaissance, Cathey said the data showed up to a 30,000 foot sedimentary basin.
The exploration permit is for 25,000 square kilometres (6.3 million acres). Usually, many companies hold the rights to such a large area whereas the Kavango is held by one company, Reconnaissance Energy Africa.
The reason for Reconnaissance Energy Africa to take a chance on this is the fact that Kavango likely holds similar geology, deposited by the same Permian seaway, as Shell’s massive Permian shale play in South Africa, one of the top ten shale plays in the world.
Recon is targeting for the same Permian shales at the lower portion of the Karoo Supergroup. So far, Recon’s interpretation suggests that Kavango could be a big shale play in the Karoo Supergroup of rocks.
When it comes to exploration, Africa is one of the final frontiers for oil investors. And if it is a junior explorer who makes a discovery and ends up sitting on a viable shale play, that becomes leverage for investors.
There are a lot of new companies in Namibia, but none with an entire basin as large as this.
Not only do they own the entire basin, Reconnaissance Energy Africa also has a four-year exploration licence for the basin, leading to a 25-year production licence if there is a commercial production discovery.
Sproule – a tier 1 resource assessment company – estimated that Kavango has a potential 12 billion barrels of oil and 119 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That is for the shale, and there is also conventional potential.
The first well at Kavango is planned to be drilled in the second quarter of 2020, and this junior explorer Recon is hoping for good results.
Don’t Forget The Oilfield Services Companies
When it comes to new development, it would be impossible to ignore the oilfield service companies of the world. In particular, the two who have consistently fuelled every major oil boom of the past half century. Halliburton, and Schlumberger.
Halliburton is one of the largest oilfield services companies in the world. The company has secured its place in the oil and gas industry. But it did not happen overnight. The oilfield services sector is highly competitive and ripe with innovation. In order to stay ahead, companies must be on the absolute cutting edge of technology. And that is exactly what Halliburton has done.
Schlumberger posted strong financials for the second quarter, with both revenue and earnings beating expectations. The oilfield services giant was hit hard by the oil market downturn, but will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the rebound. The international market is set to improve, meaning Schlumberger will profit on the shale drilling rush, but also on more drilling around the world.
Source: Global Energy World