Staff Writer
Custos Energy (Pty) Ltd has announced that Trago Energy (Pty) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Custos, has entered into an agreement with Harmattan Energy Limited, a Chevron Corporation affiliate, which provides for the transfer of Trago’s 10% participating interest in Petroleum Exploration License 90 to Chevron.
The transaction provides Trago with ongoing exposure to the significant prospectivity and upcoming activities on PEL 90, including the Nabba-1X exploration well, while at the same time eliminating Trago’s funding and capital risk.
Specifically, the agreement provides for the transfer of all of Trago’s participating interest in PEL 90 to Chevron, in exchange for US$11m in cash at completion and further contingent consideration payable on the achievement of appraisal and production milestones, including the revenues associated with commercial production currently estimated to be between 1.5 and 2.5MM barrels of oil (dependent upon commodity price assumptions.)
Completion of the transaction remains conditional upon various governmental, regulatory and third-party approvals.
“As a local company that has been a participant in PEL 90 since its award in 2018, we have been a proud champion of its potential. We were pleased to be able to bring Chevron to Namibia in 2022 as the operator of this marquee license, as well as more recently seeing Qatar Energy and Equinor join the licence as partners,” said Knowledge Katti, chairman and chief executive officer of Custos Energy.
Upon completion of the transaction, Custos will contribute N$10 million, through the Knowledge Katti Foundation, to the University of Namibia (Unam) Foundation towards the construction of Unam’s new campus in Walvis Bay, as recently announced.
The contribution is expected to be made as soon as the required approvals have been obtained and the transaction has closed.
The contribution builds on the Knowledge Katti Foundation’s longstanding support for education, having already sponsored more than 120 Namibian students to attend university, and marks a further step in its partnership with the Unam Foundation.
“Namibia’s greatest resource is its young people,” said Katti.
“As a son of Walvis Bay, I am proud that we can help bring Unam’s first campus to the town. It is a strategic investment that will allow young people from all over Namibia to study close to where the industry is based,” he added.
Custos is a Namibian independent oil and gas exploration company focused on attracting investment and expertise to the Namibian offshore industry.
Founded over a decade ago by Katti, Custos holds a 10% interest in PEL 83, which contains the Mopane discoveries.
