Total abandons plan to acquire Ghana oil assets

Total has announced its decision to discontinue the acquisition of Occidental Petroleum’ assets in Ghana on the back of “extraordinary market environment and the lack of visibility”.

The French oil major said on Monday that it entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Occidental Petroleum on August 2019 in order to acquire Anadarko’s assets in Africa.

It said under the agreement, they had since completed the sale and purchase of the Mozambique and South Africa assets.

Total said the PSA provided that the sale of the Ghana assets was conditional upon the completion of the Algeria assets’ sale.

It said, “Occidental has informed Total that, as part of an understanding with the Algerian authorities on the transfer of Anadarko’s interests to Occidental, Occidental would not be in a position to sell its interests in Algeria.

“Given the extraordinary market environment and the lack of visibility that the group faces, and in light of the non-operated nature of the interests of Anadarko in Ghana, Total has decided not to pursue the completion of the purchase of the Ghana assets and, as a consequence, to preserve the group’s financial flexibility.”

Total Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Pouyanné, said the decision not to pursue the completion of the purchase of the Ghana assets consolidated the group’s efforts in the control of its net investments this year.

He said it also provided financial flexibility to face the uncertainties and opportunities linked to the current environment.