Serinus Tunisia Update
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
CALGARY, Alberta, July 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Serinus Energy Inc.
("Serinus", "SEN" or the "Company") (TSX:SEN) (WARSAW:SEN) provides an update on
its operations in Tunisia. The Company's production at its Sabria and Chouech Es
Saida fields in Tunisia continues to be temporarily shut-in due to continued
social and labour unrest in the southern part of the country. The Sabria field
has been shut-in since May 22(nd) and the Chouech Es Saida field further south
has been shut-in since February 28(th), 2017.
The continued protests in the southern region, over jobs and development, have
blocked all oil field activities in the southern oilfields of Tunisia, and have
shut down the major south-north oil export pipeline. There are two primary hot
spots of protest affecting the Tunisian oil and gas industry: the Tataouine
Governorate and the Kebili Governorate.
In the Tatouine region, where the Chouech Es Saida field is located, a large
group of protestors started a sit-in on April 22(nd) at the El Kamour military
check point. This check point provides access to the southern desert region,
including the southern oilfields. The protestors illegally blocked any movement
of supplies or people by road into the southern oil facilities, thereby
preventing oil companies from carrying out oil and gas activity. On May 20(th),
the protestors attacked and disabled the SP4 valve station on the primary north-
south oil export pipeline. This action resulted in all production (OMV, ENI,
SODEPS & MEDCO) in the region being shut-in by June 5(th,) due to storage
capacity limitations being reached. On June 16(th), the El Kamour sit-in was
lifted following an agreement between the sit-in committee and the government,
with the commitment of the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail ("UGTT") that
this agreement for the Tataouine region would be implemented by June 18(th). On
this date, oil & gas production was resumed by OMV, ENI, SODEPS & MEDCO.
However, the production stoppage resulted in damage to at least 9 oil wells,
which will require significant capital investments to re-start production in the
future. On June 27(th), a group of illegal protestors from the town of Douz
again closed a valve on the major north-south oil export pipeline at Bou Lahbal
(100 km south of Douz). Despite the agreement being in place, on July 5(th)
protestors from Tataouine again blocked the road leading to the southern desert
region and seized a number of corporate four-wheel drive vehicles. On July
7(th), OMV and SODEPS production from the southern Tataouine desert region was
shut-in again and ENI shut-in production on July 10(th,) due to the pipeline
closure. In a statement to the press, the Minister said that the oil companies
must recruit 100 new hires during the month of July, 150 new hires in September,
and 150 new hires in October. He added that there are plans to create 1,000 jobs
in 2017 and a further 500 jobs in 2018. This is despite the fact that the total
current workforce of the Tunisian oil companies is estimated to be 1,700 and
that there is no ability among the oil companies to take on additional
employment obligations under the current economic conditions.
In addition to the protests in the Tataouine region, parallel protests began in
the Kebili region, where the Company's Sabria field is located. On April 4(th),
as a result of the protests in Tataouine, a social campaign named "where is the
oil?" began in Kebili. Throughout the month of April, the protests increased in
size and by May 7(th) the Kebili protestors started a sit-in at the Perenco
facilities in Douz. These actions quickly escalated to a stoppage of production
and abandonment of the facilities by Perenco staff. Serinus continued to truck
Sabria crude oil at this time, but by May 19(th) the protests in the El Faouar
region stopped all crude oil trucks from operating. At this time, a general
strike in El Faouar was held requesting that the government promise to hold a
dedicated ministerial meeting on the economic situation in the region. On May
22(nd), given no response by the government, the El Faouar protestors arrived at
the Serinus Sabria facilities and demanded that the Company stop production and
evacuate all personnel from the field. The government attempted to de-escalate
the situation with a ministerial meeting on May 25(th). However, this meeting
ended with no solution as the protestors rejected the 29 government initiatives
offered as not being sufficient. The final demands of the protestors in El
Faouar (Governorate of Kebili) are uncertain. However, the general framework is
the strengthening of development and employment in the region, including the
creation of public projects, increased employment by the oil companies and
strengthening the social and economic actions of oil companies, by increasing
funding allocated for this purpose and the creation of subsidiaries in the
governorate.
The Governor of Kebili has taken the initiative to help consolidate all the
protestors demands into one manageable framework. On July 6(th), a meeting was
held at the Perenco El Franig facility between the protestors, the union and the
government deputies. The outcome of this meeting was that the protestors
accepted the Governor's proposal to unify the demands and to have just one
coordinating committee for all the sit-ins from the different delegations, all
under the supervision of UGTT.
The process is still ongoing and a meeting with the UGTT, concerning the
Governor's proposal to unify the demands and to have just one coordinating
committee for all the sit-ins from the different delegations, was held on
Saturday, July 15(th), 2017. At this meeting a committee was formed of all key
representatives of the local associations, members of the assembly, protest
groups and UGTT. A consolidated list of demands was written and will be
submitted to the government.
As a result of the continued road blockages in the Kebili Governorate, the
Company has been unable to restart oil production at Sabria. The Company has
implemented cost-saving measures to reduce expenditures to the minimum level
while still meeting its legal contractual commitments.
The Company continues to hold discussions with the government and other oil
producers to closely monitor the situation. Over the past four months, the
government has held numerous meetings with the protestors to seek a solution to
the situation. Unfortunately, these protest actions and the shut-in of
production in southern Tunisia have the unintended consequences of inflicting
significant harm to the Tunisian economy, and self-defeating the goals of the
protestors seeking employment growth and opportunities in southern Tunisia.
It is the Company's hope that a solution to the social unrest between the
protestors and the government can be achieved as soon as possible and the oil
production in the region can resume to the benefit of the country of Tunisia and
all its citizens.
About Serinus
Serinus is an international upstream oil and gas exploration and production
company that owns and operates projects in Tunisia and Romania.
For further information, please refer to the Serinus website
(www.serinusenergy.com) or contact the following:
Serinus Energy Inc.
Calvin Brackman Serinus Energy Inc.
Director, External Relations Jeffrey Auld
Tel.: +1-403-264-8877 Chief Executive Officer
cbrackman(at)serinusenergy.com Tel.: +1-403-264-8877
jauld(at)serinusenergy.com
Translation: This news release has been translated into Polish from the English
original.
Forward-looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements
made as of the date of this announcement with respect to future activities that
either are not or may not be historical facts. Although the Company believes
that its expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable
as of the date hereof, any potential results suggested by such statements
involve risk and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results
will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Various factors that
could impair or prevent the Company from completing the expected activities on
its projects include that the Company's projects experience technical and
mechanical problems, there are changes in product prices, failure to obtain
regulatory approvals, the state of the national or international monetary, oil
and gas, financial, political and economic markets in the jurisdictions where
the Company operates and other risks not anticipated by the Company or disclosed
in the Company's published material. Since forward-looking statements address
future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks
and uncertainties and actual results may vary materially from those expressed in
the forward-looking statement. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or
update any forward-looking statements in this announcement to reflect events or
circumstances after the date of this announcement, unless required by law.
This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Serinus Energy Inc. via GlobeNewswire
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 19.07.2017 - 23:00 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 553077
Anzahl Zeichen: 10823
contact information:
Town:
Calgary
Kategorie:
Business News
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"Serinus Tunisia Update"
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