Proactive Investors – John Harrington
Chariot Oil & Gas Limited (LON:CHAR) has received approaches from two parties interested in debt-financing the development of the Anchois gas discovery, offshore Morocco.
The Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African financial institution, has thrown its hat into the ring, saying it would be interested in financing the development of the Anchois discovery and future discoveries within the Lixus offshore licence.
WATCH: Chariot Oil & Gas’ announce Anchois Gas Project Expression of Interest Letters
Chariot said it had also received a non-binding expression of interest for the provision of reserves-based lending for the development of the Anchois discovery from an unnamed multinational investment bank.
Both expressions of interest take into account the estimated capital expenditure required to bring the development online, which is expected to be somewhere between US$300mln and US$500mln.
“Africa Finance Corporation [AFC] has played a pivotal role in helping to unlock some of Africa’s most promising energy projects, with AFC currently having investments of over US$1 billion in projects ranging from upstream/midstream oil & gas to power generation. The multinational investment bank is a leading provider of finance in the oil and gas sector with both global reach and profound market expertise within the EMEA [Europe, Middle East & Africa] region. Both expression of interest letters further endorse our view that the Anchois development is a high-value project, with the potential to deliver near term cash flows to Chariot and also transform Morocco’s power sector,” said Adonis Pourolis, the acting chief executive officer of Chariot.
“Today’s announcement is also further evidence of the company delivering on what it said it would do, namely, advancing the commerciality of the Lixus asset and generating value to shareholders in the process. This is an important first step towards securing financing for the project and we look forward to updating our stakeholders on further developments during the remainder of 2020,” he added.
Broker Sp Angel said that details of the financing are thin at the moment, however, AFC has over US$6bn in total assets and a long-term international credit rating of A3 assigned by Moody’s.
Importantly, the interest underlines Lixus as an important strategic asset, says the broker, with strong ESG credentials, that has the potential to help Morocco transition to a low carbon economy, as it seeks to satisfy an anticipated doubling in domestic demand for energy over the next 20 years.
SP Angel adds that the news is a potentially transformational development for both Chariot and onshore Morocco.
“The Anchois development has the potential to supply material gas volumes into existing markets in the near-term, and the exploration prospectivity of the Lixus licence is of a scale sufficient to provide the Moroccan power sector with a material level of supply.”
Shares jumped 25% to 6.2p on a tough day for stock markets.
