Ophir Forfeits Fortuna Field

AIM-listed explorer Ophir has lost its exploration Block R offshore Equatorial Guinea as the December 31 deadline for taking a final investment decision on its long-cherished Fortuna LNG project has expired, it said January 5. With it go its hopes of delivering competitively priced LNG to Europe early next decade. It has also recorded a non-cash impairment expected to be around $300mn following the impairment taken in the half-year results reported in September 2018.

The company remains focused on maximising value from its southeast Asia assets including its recent acquisition of Santos, it said.

Indonesian Medco is in talks about buying Ophir outright in cash and Ophir said these are continuing "in the shared knowledge that there were a number of potential outcomes with respect to our Fortuna asset, and these discussions continue."

Ophir said it was "disappointing" that Equatorial Guinea did not extend the licence, "despite the amount of effort and cost dedicated to the delivery of the project and especially as we were still talking to highly credible potential co-investors."

The company had missed a number of targets for announcing the investors and buyers that would pave the way to its final investment decision. Shortly after, the then CEO Nick Cooper left the company. Equatorial Guinea said in December it expected to receive $2.4bn in upstream offshore investments but made no reference to the $2bn Fortuna project.