Senegal forms commission to review oil and gas contracts, may prompt revisions

(Bloomberg) — Senegal’s government set up a commission to examine natural-resource contracts awarded to foreign investors and establish whether they comply with the West African nation’s laws, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said.

The panel, including oil, mining and tax experts, will review the deals and determine whether there’s a need to revise them, Sonko said in a remarks broadcast on state television in the capital, Dakar, on Monday. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye made an overhaul of natural-resource contracts a priority when he was elected in March.

The committee will “reexamine the agreements and rebalance them to match Senegal’s interests,” Sonko said. “The idea was never to rip up the contracts or even to nationalize these resources as some have suggested, but to make sure they follow Senegalese law.”

Senegal became an oil producer earlier this year with the start of production at the offshore Sangomar field operated by Woodside Energy Group Ltd. The country expects the first gas from the $4.8 billion BP Plc-operated Grand Tortue Ahmeyim field in the fourth quarter of this year. 

“We intend to examine the shortcomings, weaknesses and other imbalances in the implementation of these contracts to establish the need to revise them,” said Ibrahima Diop, the head of the commission.