22nd Jan 2008 07:00
Afren PLC21 January 2008 Afren plc (AIM: AFR) Afren enters into a co-operation agreement with E.ON Ruhrgas AG and African LNG Holdings Limited London, 22 January 2008 - Afren plc ("Afren" or "the Company") announces that ithas entered into a co-operation agreement with E.ON Ruhrgas AG and African LNGHoldings Limited. The Board of Afren is delighted to announce that the Company has signed aco-operation agreement ("the Agreement") with E.ON Ruhrgas AG ("E.ON Ruhrgas")and African LNG Holdings Limited ("African LNG") to investigate the availabilityand accessibility of gas in Nigeria, with a focus on the Anambra Basin and SouthEastern regions. The parties have the intention to jointly develop, collect andmonetize the gas for domestic and export purposes in line with the NigerianGovernment's Gas Master Plan. The Agreement The Agreement includes an analysis of potential feedgas, based on an identifiedtarget list of upstream gas rich assets and a study of gas gatheringinfrastructure and potential LNG export solutions. The parties will subsequentlydecide on jointly establishing corporate structures and funding arrangements. Osman Shahenshah, Chief Executive of Afren, commented: "We are delighted to have signed a cooperation agreement with E.ON Ruhrgas andAfrican LNG. We are honoured to be working with E.ON Ruhrgas, a pre-eminent gascompany. Afren remains at the forefront in contributing to the Government'sambitions to develop Nigeria into a major gas producer and assist with thereduction of gas flaring in the region. The cooperation agreement with E.ONRuhrgas and African LNG to develop upstream gas allows Afren to capitalise onthe anticipated growth in global LNG demand, without diluting our upstreamfocused strategy." Dr Dietrich Gerstein, Senior Vice President, LNG Supply Division, of E.ONRuhrgas, commented: "LNG is a key element in diversifying E.ON Ruhrgas's gas supply base. Nigeria isan important target region in the LNG strategy of our company. Within thisstrategy, the activities conducted under the Agreement with Afren and AfricanLNG can serve as a basis for building an integrated LNG position, includingupstream participation, in a significant global gas basin." Theo Oerlemans, Chairman of African LNG commented: "It is our strong belief that West Africa will grow as a major LNG supply pointfor countries throughout the Atlantic Basin including key markets in Europe andNorth America. The Agreement with E.ON Ruhrgas and Afren represents animportant milestone for our ambitions to become the premier independentintegrated LNG company in the Gulf of Guinea." Background The Gulf of Guinea has over 200 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, with morethan 80% of those reserves situated in Nigeria. Afren is currently innegotiations on a number of gas rich upstream assets in Nigeria. African LNGwill be Afren's exclusive downstream liquefaction partner, in developing amonetization strategy. The Nigerian Government's 2008 Gas Master Plan focuses on diversifying gas usagebetween domestic and export purposes. Exploration, aggregation and reduction offlaring are integral to the Gas Master Plan. Against this background, any futurejoint efforts by the Parties of the Agreement will work towards a multi facetedgas solution including an LNG export facility. LNG will be a key source of new supply to meet increasing global gas demand.Combined with depletion of indigenous supplies from US and Europe and lack offlexibility of piped alternatives, LNG is emerging as a swing supplier in anincreasingly global market. 22 January 2008 Enquiries: Afren plc +44 20 7451 9700Osman Shahenshah Chief ExecutiveEvert Jan Mulder Chief Operating OfficerGalib Virani Investor Relations Jefferies International Limited +44 20 7029 8000Toby HaywardOliver Griffiths Tristone Capital Limited +44 20 7355 5800Simon Ashby-RuddMajid Shafiq Pelham Public Relations +44 20 7743 6673James HendersonAlisdair Haythornthwaite Background information E.ON Ruhrgas E.ON Ruhrgas, is part of the E.ON group and the lead company of E.ON'sPan-European Gas business, pooling the mid-stream business which covers gaspurchasing and sale as well as gas storage. Customers are regional and localdistribution companies, industry and power stations. The supply system consistsof more than 11,000 km of pipeline, 11 underground storage facilities and 28compressor stations. The company and its affiliates offer a wide range ofservices and products for the transmission, storage, marketing and use ofnatural gas. E.ON is the world's largest investor-owned energy service provider, based inDusseldorf, Germany and with approximately 80,000 employees worldwide. In 2006,E.ON had approximately EUR68 billion in worldwide sales. E.ON engages in continuous expansion through their integrated business modelwith sustainable operations along the entire value chain. E.ON intends tosystematically cement and enlarge its market position by investing in capacitymaintenance and growth. The Company is keen to continue its growth throughentering new markets, expanding its LNG business and investing in gas transportand storage infrastructure. E.ON's position in both the European and US markets makes it ideally placed totake advantage of the emerging opportunities in the Atlantic Basin LNG business. African LNG Holdings Limited African LNG is a company with a formidable management team with significantexperience of the oil and gas industry and uniquely of LNG in Africa. AfricanLNG's management team is led by Theo Oerlemans, who has spent the majority ofhis 30-year plus career with the Royal Dutch Shell Group of Companies where heheld senior positions in Shell's Sakhalin, Malaysia, Brunei and Oman LNGprojects and was the CEO of Nigeria LNG, responsible for launching what hasbecome the largest private sector LNG project in the world. African LNG intends to become the premier independent integrated LNG company inthe Gulf of Guinea with planned operations across the LNG value chain, from gasgathering and liquefaction to shipping, storage and re-gasification in theAtlantic Basin. Afren Plc Afren (www.afren.com) was founded in December 2004 by a management teamincluding Dr Rilwanu Lukman, (Chairman), Osman Shahenshah, (Chief Executive) andBert Cooper (Advisor to the Board), with the vision to become the premier panAfrican independent Exploration and Production company. Afren has built anexecutive and non-executive management and advisory team with broad andextensive experience in the industry, both in West Africa and internationally;in identifying and completing corporate expansion opportunities and in publiccompany financing. Afren also looks to leverage key relationships across theregion to gain preferential access to opportunities. Since its listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, Afren hasrapidly expanded its portfolio and the management team has delivered a portfolioof assets in Nigeria, the Joint Development Zone of Nigeria-Sao Tome andPrincipe, Gabon, Angola, Congo Brazzaville and Ghana. Afren will continue to add to its diversified portfolio of near term developmentand high impact exploration, with the overall objective of creating substantialshareholder value. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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