Aminex: From Acorn to Oak – Chapter 8: Farm-out & Transformation

From survival mode to a funded path to production

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By 2018, Aminex had drilled two successful Ntorya wells, proving the Ruvuma basin’s scale. The problem was simple but stark: how could a junior with a stretched balance sheet fund a multi-hundred-million-dollar development?

The answer arrived in July 2018, when Aminex struck a farm-out agreement with ARA Petroleum Tanzania (APT), part of the Zubair Corporation of Oman. Under the deal:

• ARA would acquire 50% and take over operatorship.

• Aminex would retain 25%.

• Solo Oil continued to hold 25%.

The deal was approved by shareholders in early 2019, and completed in October 2020 after the long list of Tanzanian approvals was ticked off. For the first time in years, Aminex wasn’t scrambling for cash — it had a partner with the capital and the will to deliver.

The terms were transformational. Aminex secured:

• A $35 million carry through to production — meaning ARA would fund the development work while Aminex kept its 25% interest.

• Once gas flowed with the field under development, Aminex’s net cashflow was expected at $40 million per annum, without having shouldered the development costs.

For a company of Aminex’s size, it was nothing short of a lifeline. The burden of raising capital was lifted. The constant worry about dilution was gone. For the first time, Aminex could look forward with clarity: fully exposed to production upside, but without the crippling cost of building the project.

Meanwhile, the ownership picture shifted again in 2022, when Solo Oil (by then Scirocco Energy) exited Tanzania. Its 25% stake in the Ruvuma PSA was acquired by ARA, giving the operator 75% and leaving Aminex steady at 25% non-operated interest.

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For investors, the farm-out was the moment Aminex’s survival story became an investment story again. Years of scraping by on placings and hope were over. The company was now free-carried into production on a field with billion-cubic-foot potential — a rare position for any junior in the sector.

➡️ Next time: Chapter Nine — Seismic & Scale-Up. With 3D seismic acquired and interpreted, Ntorya’s potential leapt from hundreds of billions of cubic feet into multiple trillions, redefining the project as Tanzania’s largest onshore gas development.

Aminex: From Acorn to Oak – Chapter 7: The Ruvuma Basin Story

Ntorya’s promise and the wells that proved it

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If Kiliwani North was Aminex’s proof of concept, the Ruvuma basin was always the real prize. Stretching across southern Tanzania and into Mozambique, this frontier play had the scale to change the company’s future — if it could be unlocked.

The first breakthrough came in 2012 with the drilling of Ntorya-1 (NT-1). The well flowed at around 20 MMcfd of gas, with light condensate. For the first time, Aminex had a discovery of material size — one that could support development rather than just prove hydrocarbons existed.

Five years later, in 2017, the partners drilled Ntorya-2 (NT-2). This wasn’t just a repeat exercise — it was confirmation. NT-2 flowed at rates above 17 MMcfd and extended the known limits of the reservoir, it even brought the excitement of oil shows in the mud cuttings! With two wells delivering strong results, independent assessments began to point to hundreds of billions of cubic feet, and potentially over a trillion cubic feet, of gas in place.

For Aminex, NT-1 and NT-2 were transformational. Together they showed that Ruvuma wasn’t a marginal basin — it was one of East Africa’s most exciting undeveloped gas assets. But success brought a new problem.

Big discoveries demand big money. Building a processing plant, drilling more wells, and laying a pipeline to Madimba would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. For a junior like Aminex, already stretched by years of exploration, that scale of capex was impossible to fund alone.

It left the company at a crossroads: hold onto the prize and risk running out of money, or bring in a heavyweight partner with the resources to carry it forward..

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The Ntorya discoveries proved the potential. The next challenge was to secure the funding and expertise to turn them into production.

➡️ Next time: Chapter Eight — Farm-out & Transformation. We’ll follow how Aminex brought in ARA Petroleum, secured a $35m+ free carry, and positioned itself for a share of future cashflow without the burden of development costs.

Aminex: From Acorn to Oak – Chapter 6: Challenges and Decline

The pressure problems that forced a rethink

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Every gas field has a natural life. For Aminex, the thrill of first production at Kiliwani North soon met the reality of geology and pressure.

By 2017, just a year after first gas, KN-1 was no longer flowing at its earlier rates. Inlet pressures at the wellhead began to fall, production slipped below 1 MMcfd, and the flare that had once burned brightly was now little more than a flicker.

It was a sobering moment. For a junior like Aminex, Kiliwani had been the showcase asset: the first revenue stream, the proof that Tanzanian gas could be monetised. But as production declined faster than expected, it became clear the field was only ever going to be a modest contributor.

By late 2017, the well was effectively shut-in. Without sufficient pressure to sustain commercial flow, and with little appetite for further drilling in such a small structure, the partners let Kiliwani slip quietly into the background.

For investors, it was a disappointment. After waiting years for first gas, the payday had proved brief. But the experience wasn’t wasted. The GSA, the commissioning of infrastructure, and the operational lessons learned at KN-1 all paved the way for what really mattered: the much larger Ruvuma basin discoveries.

In hindsight, Kiliwani was always a stepping stone. It gave Aminex credibility as a producer, even if only for a short period. It proved that Tanzania’s new pipeline and processing system worked. And it reminded shareholders that small fields can’t carry a company’s future — bigger projects were needed.

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The fall of Kiliwani North closed one chapter, but it opened the next. Attention shifted firmly to the south, where the Ruvuma basin held a prize of a different scale.

➡️ Next time: Chapter Seven — The Ruvuma Basin Story. We’ll trace the Ntorya discoveries, the drilling of NT-1 and NT-2, and the promise of the much larger gas volumes that would redefine Aminex’s future.

Aminex: From Acorn to Oak – Chapter 5: First Gas

 When molecules finally flowed to market

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After years of drilling, licensing, and negotiating, the wait was over. In April 2016, Aminex announced that gas from the Kiliwani North-1 (KN-1) well had finally started flowing into Tanzania’s national grid.

It was a milestone not just for the company, but for the country. KN-1 marked the first time Aminex had moved beyond being a pure explorer and into the ranks of producing companies. Tanzania, meanwhile, gained a new domestic supply source to feed growing demand for power and industry.

The plan was a gradual ramp-up. Initial flows began at modest levels, with volumes increasing step by step over a 90–100 day commissioning phase until the system stabilised at around 25–30 million cubic feet per day. During that period, TPDC was invoiced monthly for gas produced, with payments made in advance under the security arrangements of the GSA.

For investors who had followed the company since the early Nyuni days, this was vindication. After more than a decade of waiting, Aminex could finally show a revenue line on its accounts — in hard US dollars.

It was also proof of concept. Gas from Kiliwani North flowed directly into the new Songo Songo processing plant and then into the pipeline system feeding Dar es Salaam. The whole chain — wellhead to processing to pipeline to end user — was now working. That mattered for the much larger discoveries in the Ruvuma basin, which would one day follow the same route.

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For Aminex, first gas was the reward for persistence. For shareholders, it was proof that the long story of licences, partners, and patient waiting had a tangible outcome. But as so often in oil and gas, the story didn’t end there. Within a year, new challenges emerged.

➡️ Next time: Chapter Six — Challenges and Decline. We’ll follow the pressure problems that reduced KN-1’s flow, forcing Aminex to rethink its strategy and refocus on the bigger prize in the Ruvuma basin.

Aminex: From Acorn to Oak – Chapter 4: Gas Sales Agreement

The signature that turned gas into guaranteed dollars

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By 2015, the pieces were lined up. Aminex had its discovery well, its government development licence, and Tanzania’s new processing plant and pipeline at Songo Songo were finally nearing readiness. What it still lacked was the most important piece of paper in any gas project: a sales contract.

That arrived on 13 January 2016, when Aminex announced that it had signed a fully-termed Gas Sales Agreement (GSA) with the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC). For the company, it was the milestone shareholders had been waiting on for years.

The terms were clear, simple, and bankable:

• Price: US$3.00 per mmbtu (≈US$3.07 per mcf).

• Currency: Revenues in US dollars.

• Indexation: Annual adjustment using US CPI from 2016 onward.

• Structure: Take-or-pay depletion contract, ensuring TPDC had to either take delivery or pay for a minimum volume each year.

• Security: Monthly payments in advance, secured by letter of credit from Tanzania Investment Bank.

For a junior like Aminex, these terms were gold. Selling at the wellhead meant the joint venture partners didn’t shoulder pipeline or processing fees. The fixed dollar price insulated them from volatile global oil and gas markets. And the take-or-pay clause provided certainty that cash would flow even if volumes were lower than forecast.

It had been a long wait. The discovery was made in 2008, the development licence granted in 2011, and only now — eight years later — was Aminex in a position to sell gas. But when the GSA landed, it transformed the company overnight: a real producer in the making, not just an explorer.

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For investors, this RNS was a watershed moment. Aminex had crossed the line from “exploration story” to “revenue story.” After years of patience, shareholders could finally expect the next announcement to be about gas flowing and dollars in the bank.

➡️ Next time: Chapter Five — First Gas. We’ll follow the moment molecules finally moved from the wellhead into Tanzania’s national grid, and Aminex booked its first ever production revenues.

Aminex: From Acorn to Oak – Chapter 3: Licence to Produce

The development licence that unlocked the field

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A discovery is one thing. Turning it into a producing field is another. For Aminex, that critical step came in April 2011, when the Tanzanian government granted the Kiliwani North Development Licence (KNDL).

The ink on that licence mattered. It meant the authorities agreed that KN-1 was no longer just an exploration curiosity — it was a field with a commercial future. It gave Aminex and its partners the right to plan, invest, and ultimately sell gas into Tanzania’s growing national grid.

By now, the partner list had firmed up:

• Aminex (Ndovu), still the operator with a controlling stake.

• RAK Gas, the Ras Al Khaimah state company.

• Bounty Oil & Gas from Australia.

• Solo Oil, the small-cap that had been steadily increasing its footprint.

This was no longer a solo act. Kiliwani North was a shared project, with multiple parties betting on the same future.

At the same time, reserve work was sharpening the numbers. By 2015, independent estimates put recoverable gas at around 28 BCF (gross, 2C) — not a giant by global standards, but enough to supply the local market for years. For Aminex, it was the bridgehead: a producing asset that could deliver dollar revenues and demonstrate capacity.

The challenge was timing. Tanzania’s infrastructure was still catching up — the new processing plant and pipeline system at Songo Songo had to be completed before first gas could flow. Aminex had the licence, but it still had to wait for the pipes.

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For long-term investors, the KNDL marked a shift in tone. This was no longer a “maybe.” The Tanzanian state had formalised it: Kiliwani North was a producing field in waiting.

➡️ Next time: Chapter Four — Gas Sales Agreement. We’ll see how Aminex translated a licence into a binding contract with TPDC, fixing the price in dollars and setting the stage for first revenues.

Aminex: From Acorn to Oak – Chapter 2: Nyuni & Kiliwani Discovery

 How early wells revealed commercial gas potential

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By the late 2000s, Aminex had weathered its first Tanzanian drills. Nyuni-1 had shown the system worked, and Likonde-1 had hinted at deeper promise. What the company still lacked was the magic word: commercial.

That breakthrough came not far from Songo Songo Island. In 2007, the company spudded Kiliwani-1, followed soon after by Kiliwani North-1 (KN-1). This was a decisive moment: KN-1 cut through a 60-metre gas-bearing interval and flowed at eye-catching rates — around 40 million cubic feet per day on test. For the first time, Aminex could point to a discovery that didn’t just prove hydrocarbons, but suggested they could be produced and sold.

This was the beginning of Kiliwani North as we know it — a modest field in size, but a giant step in confidence.

Behind the drill bits, the company kept building its knowledge base. Seismic campaigns across Nyuni and the surrounding licences tightened up the picture of the subsurface. New partners came in: RAK Gas, Bounty Oil & Gas, Solo Oil — each taking a slice of the action and, in turn, spreading both the cost and the potential reward.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing. Aminex still faced the usual hurdles of a junior explorer: raising cash, meeting licence obligations, and persuading the market that Tanzania was worth the wait. But KN-1 gave them something solid — a well that flowed, a resource that could be monetised, a discovery that put Aminex on the map.

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For shareholders, this was the first time “production” stopped being a dream and became a near-term possibility. It still needed paperwork, partners, and infrastructure. But the direction of travel was clear: Aminex had a discovery capable of feeding into Tanzania’s emerging national gas network.

➡️ Next time: Chapter Three — Licence to Produce. We’ll follow Aminex as the Tanzanian government formally stamps approval on Kiliwani North, granting the development licence that turns discovery into destiny.