BP takes 10% stake in Abu Dhabi concession; signs $1bn Africa deal

(ShareCast News) - BP on Monday said it had signed separate agreements to take a 10% stake in Abu Dhabi's ADCO onshore oil concession and invest $1bn in gas exploration blocks in Mauritania and Senegal.In addition to the interest in the ADCO concession, BP will becomes a 10% shareholder in ADCO, the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations Limited, which operates the 40-year concession.BP will issue new ordinary shares representing approximately 2% of its issued share capital (excluding treasury shares), to be held on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government.The ADCO concession, including the Bab, Bu Hasa, Shah and Asab fields, has total resources of between 20-30bn barrels of oil equivalent over the term of the concession. Overall production in 2016 is expected to average around 1.66m barrels of oil per day (bpd).In a deal with Kosmos Energy also announced on Monday, BP will spend $1bn taking a 62% working interest, including operatorship, of Kosmos' exploration blocks in Mauritania and a 32.49% effective working interest in Kosmos' Senegal exploration blocks -- acreage which it said hold "world-class" deepwater gas discoveries and exploration prospectivity across both countries.Under the terms of the agreements, BP will pay Kosmos a cash bonus of $162m on completion and will carry Kosmos' exploration and appraisal costs of $221m along with Kosmos' development costs of $533m, including front-end engineering and design studies. Project sanction is expected by 2018.Kosmos will also receive a contingent bonus of up to $2 per barrel for up to 1bn barrels of liquids, as a production royalty, subject to a future liquids discovery and oil price.The approximately 33,000 square kilometres of acreage covered by today's agreements includes the Tortue field, estimated by Kosmos to contain more than 15 trln cubic feet (tcf) of discovered gas resources. The total acreage, by Kosmos' estimates, could contain roughly 50tcf of gas resource potential and in excess of 1bn barrels of liquids resource potential.BP will invest nearly $1bn mostly in the form of a multi-year exploration and development carry to acquire a 62% interest and operatorship of offshore Blocks C-6, C-8, C-12 and C-13 in Mauritania and an effective 32.49% interest in the Saint-Louis Profond and Cayar Profond blocks in Senegal.