RE: CIEHC4 Brazzaville Congo17 Feb 2020 20:35
Angola next !
What about Manhattan ?
Andrea Cattaneo, CEO since 2008, gave Jeune Afrique Business+ the details on the company’s ambitions in Africa. Zenith will target assets that have been ignored by majors. The junior has a more agile cost structure that can make these assets profitable. The company will also only specialise in production, leaving behind exploration activities.
The targeted markets are in French-speaking Africa (Cameroon, Congo and Gabon), which, according to Cattaneo, share “stable political systems and are incredibly attractive for the oil industry.”
Zenith wants to privilege oil, which is more attractive than natural gas from a logistical perspective, even if the firm is not excluding operating small gas fields to generate power (gas to power). The company also needs to quickly add LNG assets to its portfolio. Without indicating any specifics, Andrea Cattaneo said there is a “six-month” deadline for this energy source. He adds that, from among the countries in question, Angola “offers a very favourable environment” with all its open-market reforms.
Based in Calgary, Canada, Zenith Energy operates and is listed in London. It also has offices in Italy and Azerbaijan where its main assets are currently located. Zenith has been doing business in Azerbaijan since 2016 via a rehabilitation and production contract with the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), the country’s national oil company, for a field containing 30.6 million barrels. In Italy, several gas fields are currently in production. In all, 200 people are working in the two countries where revenue totalled CA$6.6 million in 2019.
Its shift to Africa dates back to the summer of 2018 during initial prospecting in the Congo. Since then, the company has strengthened its position with the purchase in December 2019 of Anglo African Oil&Gas Congo, the subsidiary of Anglo African Oil&Gas. Zenith also recruited two African consultants: Bienvenu Briss Aleba, from Congo’s SNPC, and André-Brice Boumbendje, Gabon’s previous OPEC representative and former government advisor.
Andrea Cattaneo also announced that both the operations and management teams would be growing. Though listed on the London stock exchange and currently advised by Novum Securities, represented by Charlie Brook-Partridge and Hugh McAlister, and Peterhouse Capital (Lucy Williams and Charles Goodfellow), Zenith is looking into Lagos and Cape Town where it would have access to new consultants focused on Africa, according to our sources.
The Republic of Congo is currently the third largest oil producing country in sub-saharan Africa and the CIEHC 2020 i
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