Africa focused oil and gas exploration group Bowleven announced that together with its joint venture (JV) partners, continue to make good progress on the Etinde development, offshore Cameroon.
As part of the development planning, and following the appointment of TechnipFMC as lead contractor, Front End Engineering Design (‘FEED’) work is continuing alongside other workstreams including field optimisation and commercial discussions with key stakeholders.
The Etinde financing plan will likely comprise various layers, including senior project finance debt, vendor financing from contractors, offtakers and likely equity. The latter will be a function of the agreed field development concept and the associated capex. The next stage of this work effort will be the preparation of the Field Development Plan (‘FDP’) and Preliminary Information Memorandum (‘PIM’) and associated suite of lender due diligence reports, in preparation for financing discussions. Bowleven has engaged a financial advisor to assist with this.
As part of the FEED process, the JV partners are currently reviewing a number of commercial options regarding gas offtake and condensate marketing. Also, as a result of the work restrictions imposed by COVID-19, the timeline for the project’s Final Investment Decision (‘FID’) is now expected in mid-2021. T
he JV continues to benefit from a collaborative working relationship with a wide range of stakeholders to obtain the support required to reach FID, which represents the key objective in the short term. This includes the JV obtaining the licence extension at Etinde. All parties are confident of achieving this and will update the market further in the release of Full Year End results.
