Chad new article28 Apr 2023 20:10
Interesting to see Perenco as the ones who have thrown spanner in our deal and pretty much influenced chad
Since the recall for consultations of the Chad's ambassador to Cameroun on April 20, the tea towel has been burning between the two neighbouring countries. N'Djamena accuses Yaoundé of supporting an illegal takeover of oil assets on its territory by the British company Savannah Energy and its Baham Bahamas-owned subsidiary, Savannah Midstream Investment Limited (SMIL).
They announced, in December 2022, that ExxonMobil had agreed to sell to them, for €407 million, all the assets of Esso Exploration and Production Chad, as well as a stake in the Chad Cameroun pipeline to eventually transport crude oil to the Cameroonian port of Kribi. But N'Djamena opposes this transaction.
The Chadian authorities explain that they have not given their approval and that they have a right of pre-emption on the assets concerned - which they have therefore decided to nationalise. Above all, they oppose another deal, later concluded between the British company and the National Hydrocarbon Society (SNH) of Cameroun.
On April 20, SMIL made public a new agreement by which the Savannah Energy subsidiary sells 10% of its assets in the Cameroun Oil Transportation Company (COTCO, operating the Cameroonian part of the Chad Cameroun pipeline) to the SNH for an amount of 40.95 million euros.
N'Djamena therefore accused Cameroonian personalities without naming them of being involved in Savannah Energy's affairs and of having subtised this company to the detriment of Chadian interests and in favour of the SNH.
In an attempt to settle the dispute, Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno approached his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya and he sent his Secretary General Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh to Chad on April 26 with a mission to discuss the file. But the suspicions are not dispelled and are directed towards relatives of the Cameroonian First Lady, Chantal Biya.
According to our information, the case, which has degenerated into a diplomatic quarrel in recent days, actually dates back more than a year, at the beginning of 2022. The assets of Esso Exploration and Production in Chad, which will eventually be sold to Savannah Energy, were then of interest to another company in the sector: Perenco.
The Franco-British company had even approached Adolphe Moudiki, the general manager of the SNH, to express his interest. A letter was even sent to this effect to the Presidency of the Republic in early February 2022. But the case went unsuited and Perenco, failing to acquire the assets of Esso Exploration and Production, withdrew.
"Perenco, however, offered the SNH the same market that Savannah put on the table later," explains a player in the file. A few months later, Savannah Energy, on the other hand, succeeded where her rival failed, this time getting closer to Nathalie Moudiki, wife of Adolphe Moudiki, and true boss of the SNH.
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