13 January 2012, Sweetcrude, YAOUNDE – US firm, Kosmos Energy, have signed an agreement with Cameroon’s state oil company, SNH, allowing it to explore in the central African state’s offshore Fako block, Reuters reports.
As part of the agreement, the US company will invest 9 billion CFA francs ($17.56 million) to explore within the 1,289-square-km block, which sits near Cameroon’s productive Rio del Rey and Kribi-Campo basins, for six years,
The deal was signed, Thursday, by the vice president of Kosmos’ Cameroon subsidiary, Christopher Stone, and SNH manager, Adolphe Moudiki, according to the news wire.
It adds to Kosmos’ exploration efforts in two other Cameroon blocks, Kombe-N’Sepe and Ndian River.
Kosmos, backed by private equity firms Blackstone Group and Warburg Pincus, is focused on frontier areas in Western Africa and South America.
It helped discover in 2007 the Jubilee oil field offshore Ghana, which began pumping in late 2010.
Cameroon is one of Africa’s oldest oil producers but has seen output slump to around 65,000 bpd from 185,000 bpd at its peak in 1985.
