In what may be its first move into southern Africa, Russian natural gas
monopoly OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) is in talks with Anglo-Irish independent oil and
gas company Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) to enter the Kudu gas field that lies
offshore Namibia, people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires
Tuesday.
People close to both Tullow and Gazprom said that talks are underway, but no
deal has been finalized.
One person said, that under the possible deal, Tullow's stake in the gas field
would fall from 70% to 31%, confirming a report in industry publication,
Upstream.
Tullow has an operating interest in Production License 001 in the Kudu field,
170 kilometers off the southwest coast of
Namibia
. The
acreage holds an estimated 1.3 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves.
Gazprom has trained it sights on projects in
Africa
for
some time, and as recently as October signed a deal to develop oil and gas
projects in
Nigeria
. The company also has assets in
Libya and Algeria.