Côte d’Ivoire: Azonto directors quit to save costs

Managing director Rob Shepherd and finance director Andrew Rose have resigned from Azonto Petroleum following a review of the company’s operating structure and costs. Development of the Gazelle gas field has made only slow progress, chiefly because of the complexities of co-ordinating the upstream development with a planned gas-fired power plant, but Azonto affiliate Vioco received an Exclusive Exploitation Authorisation for the field in December. “This, coupled with progress being made in respect of the CI-Energies IPP project, means that momentum is clearly building as Vioco moves towards project sanction mid year.