Senegalese Tourism Industry: 4 propositions to boost tourism

While the objective of the government is to reach 3 millions tourists in 2023, the current trend draws another picture. Indeed while in the early 2000's, Senegal was enjoying 1.5 millions tourists per year and was the main contributor of the national economy, the number of visitors has been continuously decreasing and seems to stabilize around 1 millions visitors presently, using the most optimistic statistics. So we will review a couple of propositions to reverse this trend.

1. To reduce the airport tax

To flight to Senegal from Europe is quiet expensive compared to Morocco or others sunny european destinations. So for their targeted customers which are mostly on a budget, the travel cost is a decisive factor when it comes to choose the destination. And with a minimum of 600 USD from the main european capital, Senegal doesn't come cheap.

2. To develop business tourism

All the neighboring countries are facing some troubles, Mali is still struggling with the north part of the country and is regularly facing deadly incidents, Mauritania is sill unsecured, Gambia is not a very engaging country for the time being and Guinea is almost inexistant. Senegal could really become a hub for business convention and exhibition. The security forces are controlling firmly the country and no major trouble has been reported for long except skirmishes in Casamance which are becoming less and less recurrent. 

3. To encourage ecotourism and cultural tourism

Seaside tourism is obviously a crowded niche and a lot of Senegal's competitors are enjoying a competitive edge with better transportation rates, better hotel facilities and more experimented manpower. Betting on culture and ecotourism could be a better choice. With Goree Island, Saint Louis, Sine Saloum and now Casamance, Senegal enjoys good assets to target this niche.

4. Develop intra-africn tourism 

With the rapidly increasing middle class in Africa, or west Africa. It would certainly be wise to start to offer packages for west africans tourists that could certainly enjoy a week or 2 of vacation in Senegal thanks to its security, welcoming traditions and beautiful natural landscapes.

see more here, here and here

 

Senegalese Oil and Gas industry: Kosmos Energy trebles his budget on offshore gas exploration in Senegal

The online news bulletin of Kosmos Energy Ltd, announced the company financial statements. The Company shows losses, but trebles its budget for the gas exploration in Senegal.

Kosmos Energy, which owns  60 % rights for the exploration on the deposits of Kayar and Saint-Louis (against 30 % of Timis Corp., and 10 % of Petrosen), is very optimistic for its plans of exploration in the country  and in Mauritania. "The quality of our range of working was never also robust. According to our discoveries of quality gas in the open seas of Mauritania and of Senegal, we accomplish a programme of boring multi-well, which should begin from mi 2017. He will aim at one of the broadest explorations, not bored, identified on the coasts of the Atlantic", declared the President managing director of Kosmos, Andrew Inglis, commenting on the results of the firm, last Monday. The last balance sheet of 2016 of the company specialized in offshore oil and gas exploration and production  had just been published. For period going from September till December, Kosmos Energy however accused 59,8 million dollar losses (36 543 518 111,41 FRS CFA). An insignificant fall in comparison with last year, over the same period, when the Company was in a net 60,3 million dollar income (36 838 773 552,42 FRS CFA) there. But according to more refined calculations taking into account elements having an impact on the comparabilité of results, Kosmos counts a net loss adjusted by 22 317 506 120,78 FRS CFA.

In spite of this financial poor performance, the expenses of exploration more then trebled for the last quadrimainmast of 2016, in comparison with the same period of last year. They show 40 635 000 000 FRS CFA against 11 617 000 000 in 2015. At the moment, these are plans in Ghana, or working has already begun, which seem to carry their first fruits. "With the first deliveries of oil of Plan TEN and progress for a complete restoration of Jubilee's capacity, our investment in Ghana attained an important inflexion point. Kosmos generates now a cash flow which is going to allow to pursue organic growth", follows Andrew G. Inglis. Besides because of additional reservations of Jubilee's field (Ghana), at the end of 2015, expenses of exhaustion and load of redemption lowered, passing the barrel to 11 511 FRS CFA, against 11 893 FRS CFA last year. General and administrative expenses are 13 449 000 000 FRS CFA is a fall of 18 % in comparison with last year. As for the tax on income, Kosmos got rid of 4 890 405 722,75 FRS CFA for the third quarter of 2016, made friends mainly in payments performed in Ghana.

Substantial incomes 


The incomes of the quadrimainmast are 28 755 000 000 FRS CFA against 59 357 000 000 for the same period in 2015. Figures which result from 900 000 barrel flow for 2016, compared with 1 000 900 barrels of 2015. More in detail, these oil incomes, including the programme of cover of the Company, are 59 000 FRS CFA by sold barrel compared with 52 584 FRS CFA by barrel of last year. At the end of this balance sheet, the Company is in excess a million barrels. If Kosmos ended the exercise of the last quarter of 2016 with nearly 673 172 658 567 FRS CFA in liquid assets, she has a 734 511 993 850-fr CFA debt net.

The Company with its head office in the Bermuda is specialised in exploration and production of the gas and of the offshore oil. She established a range on the opportunities of exploration of the oil and of the gas in the open seas of Mauritania, of Morocco, of Portugal, of Sao Tomé and Principle, of the Senegal, of Surinam and of West Sahara. The request note consulted on the Internet site maintains that Kosmos Energy undertakes currently the processing of seismic data and thinks in advance on perspectives to test new oil systems.

Senegalese oil industry: Key decision makers

Macky Sall

Born in 1961, he became the sengalese president in 2012. He has a background of geologist engineer and studied in the Institute of earth and science in Dakar,  the French Institute of Petroleum (IFP) and National College of Petroleum and Engines (ENSPM). He has a good understanding of oil and gas industry and he saw with the recent oil and gas discoveries an opportunity to lift up his ambitious PSE, Plan Senegal Emergent, that aims to transform Senegal in an emerging country by 2030 by developing infrastructure, industrial and social projects. He should achieve his mandate by 2017 and if reelected by 2022, it might be difficult for his policies to really benefit from the oil exploitation which is expected to start in 2022 too. It's worth mentionning that his brother, Aliou Sall, has been involved in the local oil industry.

Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne

Born in 1959, he became the senegalese prime minister in 2014, his educationnal background is IT and he is graduated from an IT engineering school. He is in charge of implementing and coordinating the PSE plan and he is also deeply involved in the development of the senegalese oil and gas industry. It is one of the main priority of the current senegalese government. 

Mamadou Faye

He is the managing director of Petrosen, the national oil and gas company.  He joine Peetrosen in 1983 as a geologist engineer , before becoming the managing director in 2012. Petrosen, a state company, is operating under the umbrella of the ministry of energy, mining and industry. It is in charge of managing the exploration, production, transport and refining, and the sale and distribution of petroleum products. It is therefore an inevitable actor for all oil development projects. 

Mountaga Sy

He is the managing director of APIX, it is the national agency in charge of promoting foreign investments in Senegal. In order to promote investment, APIX offers a wide range of incentives like tax break, VAT suspension, and free customs tax for certain equipment. See more here

Cheikh Sidi Mokhtar Mbacké

Cheikh Sidi Mokkhtar Mbacke is the leader of the Mouride brotherhood, a muslim sect. While little known ouside Senegal and Gambia, this brotherhood gathers millions of followers in Senegal, and the majority of senegalese actually belongs to this sect. Cheikh Sidi Mokkhtar Mbacke enjoys a great influence on the senegalese religious issue but also in political, economical and social issues. 

Senegalese Oil: President Macky Sall warns about grossly exaggerated figures

The Senegalese president Macky Sall reported on Monday «unreliable figures», on the deposit of oil off the coasts of the Senegal, attractive «in caution», on the Radio international France (RFI).

« For the moment we have a certainly significant discovery, but who will be certain only after additional exploration and  boring tests that are scheduled in the coming months, asserted Mr Sall who« invites everybody to be cautious on this matter and to no create false expectation».

COS-Petrogaz: New committee to supervise the oil and gas industry

For him, it is a too serious issue for the country's future to let anyone speculate or disinform the public with unreliable figures».

Leaders of opposition and society report regularly «juicy and underground contracts» of the State with oil societies, accusing the businessman Frank Timis, implicated in the exploration of several offshore gas blocks, »of cronyism and corruption ».

« We set up a committee to lead to take the richt decisions in choice concerning the exploration and the exploitation of the oilfield and to establish and to monitor the contracts», explained the president.

Mid-October, the Senegalese presidency announced, the creation of a «Committee of strategical direction of the oil and gas industry» called "Cos-petrogaz", «to reinforce the transparency in the management of natural resources» of the country.

source: http://www.connectionivoirienne.net/121903/petrole-au-lahttp://www.connectionivoirienne.net/121903/petrole-au-large-du-senegal-macky-sall-denonce-des-chiffres-fantaisistesrge-du-senegal-macky-sall-denonce-des-chiffres-fantaisistes

Senegalese Oil: Woodside didn't acquired Conoco Philips shares yet

My first post is about the nascent senegalese oil industry for which the senegalese has a great hope that it will change their life.

The repartition  of the capital of blocks "Rufisque offshore", 'offshore Sangomar' and "offshore Sangomar" has not yet changed. ConocoPhilips, which holds 35% of rights alongside Cairn (40%), Far (15%) and Petrosen (10%), wishes to transfer these to Woodside. But the State has not yet given his blessing. 

Woodside Energy went too fast? On October 31, the Australian operator, announced on the Sydney stock exchange, have finalized the acquisition of the rights of the American Group ConocoPhilips on oil blocks "Rufisque offshore", 'offshore Sangomar' deep and "Offshore Sangomar", or 35%. He fixed the amount of the transaction to 350 million dollars (210 billion CFA francs) to which were added 90 million dollars (54 billion CFA francs) supplementary adjustments.
This announcement provoked one strong reaction from Far Limited, another Australian operator who holds 15% of the rights in question. In a statement signed by its Director General, Cath Norman, Far indicated "that a notice of right of pre-emption valid was not issued by (ConocoPhilips) partners" before suggesting that the State of Senegal which, through Petrosen, holds 10% of the blocks, yet gave consent.
Sources contacted by SeneWeb argue that Far is right. "Woodside announced an agreement that does not exist yet, corrects one of our interlocutors." The parties are negotiating. The State asked them to find common ground. If an agreement had been reached, the State would have announced it. »

There are several steps to take before such an agreement. When a rights holder (ConacoPhilips, in this case) wants to cede its share, it formulates its intention in informing its partners and in providing them all the documents related (offer to transfer received from another company, technical documents, etc.). In addition, association agreement defining relations between stakeholders requires it to offer rights to yield first to its partners.
They have 30 days to decide. If one of them chooses to exercise its right of pre-emption, it can automatically buy the equivalent of the shares he owns at the time of the assignment, or even more if the other partners do not want the remaining rights. In the contrary case, the assignee may resort to other companies which will have each, in the event of agreement, provide to the Government all the information about their technical and financial capabilities.
At this step, the State checks the conformity of the information available to it. And if everything is in order, the Minister of energy makes an order to commit the transaction. Then, last step, the decree regulating the assignment of blocks in question is updated. A real obstacle course.
Essential Far
"All this has not yet been done", an advisor to the Prime Minister contacted by Scott blows. "Woodside has perhaps purposely make this announcement to put pressure on his interlocutors in the negotiations", believed an employee of Petrosen who requested anonymity.
Rufisque offshore, offshore Sangomar and deep offshore Sangomar are to date held by Cairn (40%), ConocoPhilips (35%), Far (15%) and Petrosen (10%). We learn that when ConocoPhilips decided to cede its rights, Cairn would have clearly indicated that he was not interested. We know already that Petrosen, not participating in l "stage investment exploration, will not preempt. So in the capital of the three blocks, only Far is in position to redeem all or part to assign rights. It forces ConocoPhilips to dialogue with them.