Chairman Julien Balkany explains how contracted home gasoline enhances Panoro’s oil manufacturing—and the way acquisitions compete with funding in current property. His feedback have been provided earlier than the 24 October Dussafu rig incident.
Panoro Power is including contracted gasoline income to an African portfolio constructed largely round oil, whereas committing additional capital to the property it already owns.
Its acquisition of an oblique 9.09% curiosity in Block CI-27 offshore Côte d’Ivoire, accomplished in September, brings a fourth producing nation into the portfolio. Operated by Foxtrot Worldwide, the asset provides gasoline for electrical energy technology in Abidjan, connecting Panoro’s upstream funding to home energy demand.
For Julien Balkany, Chairman of Panoro Power ASA, the acquisition diversifies the corporate’s publicity whereas remaining inside its acknowledged funding standards.
“It’s a broadening, not a change of course,” he informed AfricaBusiness.com. “Our standards are clear: producing or near-producing property in Africa which are accretive and that we perceive technically.”
The excellence issues as a result of Panoro’s progress plans proceed to rely on each acquisitions and growth work throughout its current African operations. Côte d’Ivoire provides contracted gasoline alongside oil manufacturing in Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Tunisia.
Following completion of the acquisition in September, Panoro put professional forma group manufacturing above 21,500 barrels of oil equal per day, or boepd. In feedback provided earlier than the 24 October Dussafu incident, Balkany recognized 23,000 boepd because the focused common manufacturing for 2027. These figures shouldn’t be learn as a post-incident manufacturing replace or reaffirmed steerage.
What Côte d’Ivoire gasoline provides to the portfolio
CI-27 provides a unique income construction from the corporate’s oil property. Roughly 95% of the acquired manufacturing is gasoline, offered below long-term take-or-pay preparations with a minimal fastened value in US {dollars} that’s de-linked from oil costs.
That gives a contractual foundation for income planning alongside publicity to worldwide oil markets. It doesn’t set up that monetary outcomes are risk-free. Panoro’s printed disclosures determine uncertainties related to manufacturing, growth expenditure, counterparties and regulation, amongst different elements.
The present production-sharing contract runs to August 2034.
Sustaining manufacturing requires persevering with funding. In response to Panoro, the operator’s five-well infill programme at Foxtrot is meant to maintain a gross gasoline manufacturing plateau of roughly 190–200 million commonplace cubic toes per day, with scope to extend deliveries to round 230 million if demand helps it.
These figures confer with the asset’s gross gasoline output. Manufacturing attributable to Panoro’s acquired curiosity was roughly 3,300 boepd within the intervals reported when the transaction was introduced.
For the corporate, the industrial alternative subsequently combines a longtime buyer market, current infrastructure and additional funding to maintain deliveries.
Acquisition funding and capital allocation
The acquisition additionally illustrates the funding selections behind Panoro’s growth. The transaction was introduced at $80 million on a cash-free, debt-free foundation, with an efficient date of 1 January 2025 and topic to customary changes.
At completion, consideration totalled $64.4 million: $43 million in money and $21.4 million by the problem of seven million Panoro shares to DNO. A $5 million money deposit had been paid beforehand. These quantities distinguish the introduced transaction worth from the money and shares transferred at closing.
The financing introduced alongside the acquisition included a $50 million senior unsecured bond carrying a ten.25% coupon and maturing in 2031. Financing prices are subsequently a part of the funding case, alongside the asset’s reported manufacturing price of roughly $6 per barrel of oil equal. That operating-cost determine isn’t an all-in measure of acquisition, financing and growth expenditure.
Balkany mentioned acquisitions and spending on current property are assessed towards the identical capital-allocation self-discipline.
“They compete for a similar capital on the identical phrases, and this 12 months each have earned it.”
Balkany put professional forma 2026 capital expenditure at roughly $72 million, together with round $20 million attributable to Panoro’s curiosity in CI-27. The broader programme contains funding in Gabon and work on Block G in Equatorial Guinea.
Dussafu incident modifications the working context
Gabon illustrates the execution dangers alongside the expansion alternative. On 15 October, Panoro outlined a deliberate four-well MaBoMo Part 2 marketing campaign at Hibiscus and Hibiscus South, with the primary new effectively then anticipated onstream in early 2027.
The three way partnership was additionally assessing a fifth manufacturing effectively following profitable appraisal drilling. These plans preceded the next rig incident.
On 25 October, Panoro reported that Borr Drilling’s Prospector 5 had misplaced stability and sunk throughout jacking operations on 24 October. It mentioned MaBoMo manufacturing was shut down throughout drilling preparations and reported no harm to the ability. Panoro holds a 17.5% non-operated curiosity in Dussafu.
In its 29 October replace, Borr Drilling mentioned 110 of the 115 personnel aboard had returned ashore. It reported that the our bodies of three folks had been positioned, whereas two remained unaccounted for and search and restoration efforts continued. These figures describe that dated replace.
The statements cited right here don’t set up a revised drilling timetable or quantify the impact on Panoro’s 2027 manufacturing ambition. The sooner early-2027 effectively start-up expectation subsequently stays a pre-incident plan.
Additional forward, Balkany recognized the sanctioned Bourdon growth, which had focused first oil within the first half of 2028, as one other part of the expansion programme. In Equatorial Guinea, effectively interventions and work at Ceiba type a part of efforts to enhance restoration and manufacturing efficiency.
What to look at subsequent
Panoro’s technique consequently includes a number of distinct supply duties: sustaining contracted gasoline provide in Côte d’Ivoire, bringing new wells into manufacturing in Gabon, and enhancing efficiency from established oil property.
The corporate didn’t determine particular future acquisition targets within the feedback provided for this characteristic. Balkany emphasised producing or near-producing African property that meet its technical and monetary standards.
For the subsequent part, the clearest measures of progress would be the manufacturing and drilling outlook following the Dussafu incident, execution throughout the portfolio, and the conversion of contracted gross sales into money after working, funding and financing prices.
Reporting is predicated on written responses provided by Panoro Power, subsequent clarifications from its consultant, and the corporate’s printed disclosures.
Associated studying: Panoro Power Completes Acquisition of Stake in Côte d’Ivoire’s CI-27 Gasoline Block.
Sources and {photograph}
Panoro: acquisition completion, 14 September 2026
Panoro: Dussafu appraisal replace, 15 October 2026
Panoro: Dussafu incident, 25 October 2026
Borr Drilling: incident replace, 29 October 2026
Julien Balkany, Chairman of Panoro Power ASA. {Photograph}: Panoro. Feedback have been provided earlier than the 24 October incident; this characteristic incorporates firm statements issued subsequently.
