SECURING NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NATURAL RESOURCES SECTOR
The Challenge
One of our natural resources clients, who was active within the mining sector in South America, engaged us in 2012 to help them expand their operations to incorporate oil and gas exploration.
Our work
We worked closely with our client’s senior leadership team to devise a strategy to enhance their reputation, build their international infrastructure, create connections with the relevant business leaders and develop their social responsibility initiatives. This involved:
introducing our client to relevant advisors to help establish the governance and financial foundations necessary to bid for the exploration contracts
leveraging market knowledge and local relationships to help them navigate through the market bidding process.
negotiating with the respective petroleum directorates
opening local offices in West Africa and Continental Europe and recruiting local leaders to bolster its standing alongside more established firms in the market
helping the company contribute to the local economy by developing local talent. To do this we facilitated an MBA-accredited course and training schemes in the region and enabled local workers to take secondments overseas to learn from international geologists and seismic data experts
Helping to structure their financial funding and capital raising.
Our Impact
Through an open market bidding process our client was awarded two concessions to explore for oil and gas in West Africa. One of these concessions was found to contain 127 million barrels of proven oil reserves, with an estimated 400-695 million more in the surrounding area. As a result of our work the field was given a defined valuation by $2.5bn by UK based Lambert Energy, of which at least $700m belonged to our client.
When the sector fell into crisis in 2015, we continued to assist our client and helped them to achieve a favourable exit point in 2018.