By Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Norwegian oil company Akersaid on Thursday that its exploration start-up inGhana will submit development plans to Ghanaian authorities inMarch and the parent will then decide whether to sell stakes viaan initial public offering or other means.
The subsidiary, Aker Energy, plans to develop the deepwaterPecan field off Ghana.
"Depending on the approval process in Ghana, we believe thefirst oil is achievable in late 2020 or early 2021," Aker'sChief Executive Oeyvind Eriksen told Reuters during an earningspresentation.
A recent appraisal had confirmed contingent resources of 450million-550 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) at thefield, Aker said.
Aker Energy plans to drill another two wells in February,expected to prove between 150 and 450 mmboe of additionalresources, with preliminary results expected before thedevelopment plan is submitted, Eriksen told the presentation.
Aker controls oil company Aker BP, 30 percent owned by BP, which has announced plans to triple its oil productionby 2025 from 155,700 boepd in 2018.
Expected production from Ghana, and potential acquisitionsin Norway, support the plan of Aker's main shareholder,Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, to increase total oiloutput to over 1 million boepd by 2025, Eriksen said.
Aker Energy operates and holds a 50 percent stake in theDWT/CTP block off Ghana, which contains several discoveries.
Its partners are Russia's Lukoil (38 percent), theGhana National Petroleum Corporation (10 percent) and Fueltrade(2 percent).
Eriksen also told Reuters that Aker was still interested inmergers and acquisitions involving its oil service firms,including Aker Solutions.
"We still see opportunities (for M&A)... but the downturnhas been more rough for our competitors, which have been morepreoccupied with managing price volatility instead of focusingon strategic decisions," he said.
He declined to say whether he expected any deals to be madethis year as oil prices have recovered from a slump in the lastquarter of 2018.
As a result of the price fall and capital market volatility,Aker's net asset value (NAV), its core performance indicator,dropped to 41.7 billion crowns ($4.8 billion) in the fourthquarter from 63.2 billion crowns in the third quarter.
However, the company proposed to increase its dividend to22.5 crowns per share for 2018, up from 18 crowns for 2017, asit has received a record 2.2 billion crowns in cash from itsportfolio companies for the full year, and expected this figureto grow to over 3 billion crowns in 2019.
Aker shares were trading down 0.7 percent by 1150 GMT,underperforming a wider European oil and gas index whichwas down 0.2 percent.($1 = 8.6545 Norwegian crowns)(Editing by Susan Fenton)