Sirius shifting to operating firm as Ororo partners ink joint operating deal

Shares of the AIM-listed Sirius Petroleum have been temporarily suspended as Sirius awaits transition from an investing to operating company related to its role in the Ororo field development located offshore Nigeria. 

The Ororo field, discovered in 1986, is located within OML 95 in shallow waters offshore Ondo State. The field lies in water depths ranging between 23ft and 27 ft.

Sirius Petroleum, an investment company focused on oil and gas exploration and development opportunities in Nigeria, informed on Wednesday that a joint operating agreement has now been signed by Sirius and its partners for the development of the Ororo field.

Namely, Sirius acts as a technical and financing partner in the development of the field, Guarantee Petroleum has a 55% participating equity interest and  Owena Oil & Gas has the remaining 45% interest.

The joint operating agreement enables Sirius to transition from an investing company to an operating company and as such Sirius is required under the AIM Rules for companies to seek shareholder approval and re-admission of its ordinary shares to trading on AIM.

Therefore, Sirius has requested a temporary suspension in the trading of its ordinary shares pending the publication of an admission document containing a notice of general meeting.

Earlier this week, Sirius entered into a $10 million revolving pre-payment facility and commercial offtake agreement related to the sales of the crude produced from the Ororo field with BP to support the multi-well campaign on the field.

The drilling campaign will be done by the COSL Power jack-up rig, selected by the partners in May. China’s COSL Drilling and Sirius signed the rig deal back in November 2016 but waited for the analysis of the bathymetry results from the seabed survey to select the rig. The innovative deal entails charter payment at a later date.

In addition to COSL’s rig, the drilling program will be supported by several service providers including Tidewater, ADD Energy and Schlumberger.

Offshore Energy Today Staff