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Looks like the funding is still proving difficult to close article from africa intelligence below:
I believe the vitol exclusivity period is until the end of May, so clearly there seems to be sticking points if they are still unable to agree with vitol, vitol as ever can provide funding but i am sure they have their limit as to concessions they are willing to offer no oil trader would sign a bad deal for them so not sure whether Gunvor or Trafigura would offer anything different to what vitol is offering
GOC changes advisers in quest to buy out Carlyle assets
The state-owned Gabon Oil Co recently reviewed its strategy to give itself a better chance of financing the pre-emption of the US investment firm's assets.
Gabon Oil Co (GOC) has changed its advisers as it searches for funds to acquire Carlyle's oil assets in the country, which are operated by Assala Energy, The Paris branch of US law firm Norton Rose Fulbright is now handling the legal side of the highly sensitive matter.
Norton Rose in the past regularly represented the son of former president Ali Bongo, Noureddin Bongo, who has been in prison since a coup last August led by General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema (AI, 19/01/23). Until April, GOC worked mainly with the Paris offshoot of the US law firm Baker McKenzie.
But on the banking aspects of the Carlyle-Assala takeover, GOC continues to use the advisory bank Africa Bright, one of whose new executives is Emmanuel Leroueil, who worked as an economic and financial adviser to the Gabonese president's office from 2019 till last October.
Leroueil was a director of GOC until last October. The Franco-Rwandan, a graduate of Sciences-Po in Paris, managed negotiations with oil operators in Gabon from 2022 until last year's coup. Prior to the coup, he had taken on increasing responsibility at the presidential palace in Libreville (AI, 07/12/22).
Exclusivity agreement
Gabon's junta leader said in November that he wanted to nationalise the assets of Carlyle, which produce 45,000 barrels a day, rendering null and void a sales agreement signed six months earlier with Maurel & Prom of the Pertamina group.
GOC signed an exclusivity agreement earlier this year with Vitol to negotiate the terms of raising funds in exchange for marketing the crude generated by these licences, which will remain in Shell's hands until 2017 (AI, 09/04/24). But the exclusivity period will come to an end in a few weeks' time and other commodity traders, such as Gunvor and Trafigura, are keeping a close eye on the deal.
GOC managing director Marcellin Simba Ngabi is under pressure to find the billion dollars needed for the state's pre-emption. If the compromise with Vitol fails and Gunvor or Trafigura cannot raise the money, there will be few other options.
Pre-emption is never easy when the funding is difficult to find for failed economical states
Less than three weeks before the end of the pre-emption period, Gabon Oil Company (GOC) and the State are still looking for solutions to complete the acquisition of the Assala tanker. In search of the 1.2 billion dollars necessary for the conclusion of this operation, the Gabonese State comes up against its own turpitudes, in particular less than optimal governance and management of resources, which favor operating expenses to the detriment of public expenditure. investment. As a result, oil trading and brokerage companies could be called to the rescue, but at what cost? And under what conditions?
Announced just a few months after General Oligui Nguema came to power, the purchase of Assala's assets is struggling to be finalized by the Gabonese state, which is trying to buy time and attract new investors. In search of a strategy to shield this deal by the end of May and the end of the pre-emption period, Gabon Oil Company (GOC), mandated by the State in this operation, should for example take advantage of the Invest in forum African Energy 2024 (IAE 2024) which will be held in Paris on May 14 and 15, to continue its quest for financing. During this event focused on collaboration between European and African markets, Marcellin Simba Ngabi, ADG of GOC, will play his part. But how did we get there?
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By putting forward its “right of pre-emption”, an initiative which according to several analysts, notably those from Standard & Poor's Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, could not hold water due to cash flow tensions inherited from the fallen regime, the Gabonese state which has since handed over to his secular arm in the oil sector, surely did not imagine such difficulties. Floundering between political will and economic reality, this operation seems to be in trouble and could further undermine our economic prospects, not for its irrelevance, but rather for the conditions that should be offered by investors in a context slowdown in global economic growth.
Only three weeks left to raise the equivalent of 7% of GDP
The Gabonese state which is trying to “call on trading companies to help it finance a 1.3 billion dollar agreement for the Carlyle fund's Assala oil company” confirming its cash flow difficulties and investors' uncertainties as to in our situation, is currently trying to complete this operation which is ultimately not as simple as that. With less than a month to find 1.2 or even 1.3 billion US dollars, the equivalent of 7% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the pressure increases a little more every day on the shoulders of resource people, in charge of this file which could have been discussed and handled differently in view of the emergencies of the day, particularly in terms of infrastructure.
A few weeks away from proving right those analysts who spoke last January of the fact that "this first operation in the oil sector since the August coup d'état is doomed to failure on a financial and political level and that it harms the investment climate of OPEC members”, those responsible for this takeover now have their backs against the wall. How will they go about obtaining this funding? What will be the conditions if they get funding? So many questions that arise at a time when “the GOC has clearly expressed its commitment to revitalizing Gabon's oil production through renewed exploration and a field optimization strategy” as stated Elsewhere recently indicated Sandra Jeque, event director at Energy Capital & Power.
https://gabonmediatime.com/rachat-dassala-goc-et-letat-gabonais-plus-que-jamais-sous-pression/