Woodside Petroleum said today that its purchase of a stake in Senegalese oil assets had been approved by the West African country.
Woodside, which bought a 35% stake in the Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep Joint Venture from ConocoPhillips last year, said Senegal’s Energy Ministry had issued a ministerial order confirming the transaction.
Australian firm FAR said yesterday that it had made a request to the International Chamber of Commerce to commence arbitration proceedings in relation to the deal.
FAR has argued that it should have had pre-emptive rights over the ConocoPhillips stake, which was sold for what was considered a cheap price of $350million.
Woodside today reiterated that it does not believe FAR’s claim has any merit.