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 22nd and the Chouech Es
Saida field further south has been shut-in since February 28th,
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 22nd 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 20th, 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 5th, due to
storage capacity limitations being reached. On June 16th, 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 18th. 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 27th, 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 5th 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 7th, OMV and SODEPS
production from the southern Tataouine desert region was shut-in
again and ENI shut-in production on July 10th, 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 4th, 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 7th 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 19th 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 22nd, 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 25th.
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 6th, 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 15th,
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 BrackmanDirector, External
RelationsTel.:
+1-403-264-8877cbrackman@serinusenergy.com |
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Serinus Energy Inc.
Jeffrey AuldChief Executive OfficerTel.:
+1-403-264-8877 jauld@serinusenergy.com |
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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.
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