Anglo African Oil & Gas receives part of debt payment owed to it by SNPC, Congo
Anglo African Oil & Gas (AIM: AAOG), an independent oil and gas developer, has provided an update on the repayment of funds owed to it by Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo ('SNPC'), the Congolese national oil company, in regards to SNPC's 44% holding in the Tilapia Licence ('the Licence') in the Republic of the Congo.
As a result of the work conducted to date on the Licence, including the successful drilling of the TLP-103C well ('TLP-103C' or 'the Well'), SNPC owes approximately US$10m to the Company in respect of SNPC's share of the total costs. The Company had proposed to SNPC that it would accept the transfer of a substantial portion of SNPC's 44% interest in the Licence in satisfaction of the debt.
The Company has, however, now received an initial cash payment of US$663,000 from SNPC. SNPC has also informed the Company that it will propose a short-term payment plan to meet the remaining debt of approximately US$9.5m.
David Sefton, Executive Chairman of AAOG, said:
"We are pleased to receive this payment from SNPC although our preference remains to increase the size of our holding in the Licence, as we had recently proposed to SNPC. However, SNPC is entitled to repay the overdue debt in cash, and we have emphasised to SNPC that this needs to be done in a timely manner. We also recognise that SNPC takes a similar view to us as to the value of the field and therefore why it would prefer to meet the debt in cash."
"As previously stated, we are working towards bringing TLP-103C into production in April. The extra cash that we have now received plus the substantial further funds to come from SNPC, reinforces the cash position of the Company and therefore its ability to meet the costs associated with this work."
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information for the purposes of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
