WEST AFRICA - Timis and CNPC as bedfellows - Africa Energy Intelligence

Timis and CNPC as bedfellows

     African Petroleum’s quick and bountiful harvest of acreage in West Africa means it will have to look for key partners with deep pockets. State-run Chinese companies fit the bill.
PetroChina, the subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), has until Aug. 31 to decide on the outcome of the memorandum of understanding it signed in early July with the managing director of African Petroleum, Karl Thompson, and its president, Frank Timis.

CNPC, which hasn’t picked up acreage in Africa for a number of years and whose main assets in South Sudan are completely frozen because of the political standoff between Juba and Khartoum, wants to invest in new frontiers. So the company is looking fondly at teaming up with a junior which managed in the space of two years to buy numerous permits in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast and - most recently - Niger and Sudan (AEI 679).

In addition, CNPC can benefit from Timis’ strong connections in presidential circles in a number of countries.

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