Odd lots #9; Sintana Energy

A check-up on oil exploration Offshore Namibia

» Intro + Conclusions

Offshore Namibia looks destined to become the new major oil province. Sintana Energy looks like the best beta play to get exposure to additional exploration success in the region. The company has interests in 4 Petroleum Exploration Licenses (PELs) in the Orange Basin and 1 in the Walvis Basin. It shares these blocks with prominent operating partners such as Galp and Chevron, who will incur most of the cost burden.

This week Shell, the license-holder on PEL-39, and the southern neighbor to Sintana’s PEL-83, announced it expects well write-offs of USD 400m. Every reason to do a check-up on Offshore Namibia. So I went through the conference call transcripts of the various players in the region, and a bunch of other info.

The Shell announcement emphasizes a key risk to oil field development Offshore Namibia.