Bracewell lawyers Adam Blythe, Simon Cudennec and Jason Fox addressed with New Energy World the latest on state interventions and moves towards resource nationalism in Angola, Nigeria and Francophone Africa as indigenous operators take over from the oil and gas majors.
Blythe highlighted “significant scaling up in the positions held by indigenous companies or independents expanding their existing footprint. These deals represent a ‘changing of the guard,’ particularly offshore Nigeria.”
“Gabon, in particular, shocked the industry by pre-empting oil assets,” Cudennec added about the state takeover of Carlyle’s Assala Energy Holdings and subsidiaries’ oil assets. “This move is part of a broader government effort to reassert control over the country’s natural resources and capture all that value for the sector.”
