Flash note: Bridge financing agreement in place

Madagascar Oil (MOIL) has announced the agreement of a $21.89m bridge finance facility, supporting the group through its partner selection process. MOIL is currently seeking a strategic partner for development of its 1.7bnbbl (contingent) Tsimiroro heavy oil field in Madagascar. The group has announced good progress and expects a deal to be announced by end Q116. In the same release, the company announced that falling service costs had enabled it to develop a plan to reduce the initial developme...

Update: Appointments and raise should take to next level

After the approval of the field development plan in April 2015, Madagascar Oil (MOIL) can start the development stages of the massive 1.7bn OIP Tsimiroro field. Further approvals (such as the recent EIA submission) and milestones need to be negotiated, but pilot results indicating commerciality of the resource mean that a staged development can start. A development of this size is too big for MOIL to fund independently, and it has appointed Jefferies to seek possible partners. Given the size of ...

Institutional Comment: Daily comment

Update: Full field development plan submitted

The next 9-12 months are a critical period for MOIL and could trigger a fundamental de-risking of the overall project. On 27 October, MOIL submitted the Tsimiroro development plan (TDP) for government approval. This could take as little as 30 days, although we do expect comments from the ministry. Other major milestones include delineation of the field through additional drilling (ready for a H215 CPR), better understanding of crude pricing in local power markets (acting as a substitute for dies...