Chinese oil giant Sinopec is expected to see drilling right of an oil field operated by its subsidiary Addax Petroleum in Gabon be withdrawn by local government.
Etienne Ngoubou, a senior official with the Gabonese government, disclosed not long ago that because of contract violations, it would withdraw drilling right of a major offshore oil field namely Tsiengui operated by Addax, a unit of China-based Sinopec, in Gabon when renewing the contract in 2015.
A top executive responsible for public relations at Sinopec said in an interview on June 6 that it had not received a formal notice on the withdrawal. He confirmed that Obangue, another oil field operated by it in the African country, had been taken over by the Gabonese government. However, it did not give up and would take move to protect its legal right and interest.
Actually, in addition to Gabon, a list of African nations have launched all-round investigations on operating activities of oil investors and in line with industry observers, the direct aim for them to do so is to urge multinational oil producers to provide better items or withdraw the drilling right. For instance, Gabon had no ability to produce crude oil independently in the past, but so far, it has established a national oil firm to control and manage crude oil asset of the government. Notably, the firm has begun attempting to withdraw drilling right that has been sold. Chinese oil firms see investment in Africa rise sharply, thus should attach more importance to changes in attitudes of the governments there.
The latest data shows that Gabon, with oil reserves of 3.7 billion barrels, ranked No.7 in Africa in 2012. For it, crude oil is the most important resource and accounts for up to 60 percent of the national budget. And at the start of this year, it even hired US-based Alex Stewart to audit local oil industry, including the real output, the capital flow, and supervision shortages. Besides, it required oil firms in it to pay overdued tariff and taxes. In the opinion of industry observers, all those indicate that it is tightening restrictions on local oil industry.
Sinopec acquired Switzerland-based Addax for USD 7.6 billion in 2009 and the latter mainly saw assets spread in Africa. People in the circle pointed out that the national oil firm of Gabon has kicked off production in Obangue, thus there would be little possibility for the Chinese oil producer to regain drilling right of the oil field in the future.
