Africa Oil Corp receives $100m dividend from Prime Oil, Gas

Africa Oil has disclosed receiving a dividend from Prime Oil and Gas Cooperatief UA from its 50% shareholding in Prime.

Prime has distributed a $200 million dividend with a net payment to Africa Oil of $100 million related to its shareholding. Since acquiring its 50 per cent interest in Prime for a cash consideration of $520 million in January 2020, Africa Oil has received 11 dividends from Prime for a total amount of $500 million, representing 96 per cent of the cash consideration paid.

At year-end 2021, Prime’s cash and debt positions net to Africa Oil’s 50 per cent shareholding were $258.9 million and $508.4 millionrespectively. These compare with corresponding cash of approximately $70 million and debt of $912.5 million at the time of Prime deal closing in January 2020.

The Company’s year-end 2021 working interest (W.I.) Proved plus Probable (“2P”) reserves of 72.8 million barrels of oil equivalent (“MMboe”) compare to its year-end 2019 2P reserves of 70.9 MMboe1,2,3. These reserves are all attributed to Africa Oil’s 50% shareholding in Prime. The Company achieved 2P reserves replacement ratios of 114% and 102% in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

Keith Hill, Africa Oil’s President and CEO, commented: “We have made a strong start to this year with a debt-free corporate balance sheet, the implementation of a base dividend policy for Africa Oil’s shareholders and the announcement of a significant light oil discovery, offshore Namibia. I am also pleased that after two strong years of production performance and receiving $500 million in dividends from Prime, our year-end 2021 2P reserves are higher than the 2P reserves base at the time of our Prime acquisition. This underscores the excellent quality of these assets.”