Like Addax, Oryx will be focused on exploring for oil in west Africa and Iraqi Kurdistan.
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Like Addax was before it, Oryx is named after a noble African relative of the antelope with grand horns.
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Until there's a law, Addax cannot build the pipeline that would probably move oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Addax began talks with Genel, but months passed, and any hope of a deal seemed bogged down as other suitors tried to woo the Turks.
In that respect Addax shareholders have little to worry about.
Adjacent to the ridge formation that marks Bina Bawi is a field called Taq Taq, where a Swiss-Canadian outfit, Addax Petroleum, says it found 2 billion barrels in September.
"Jean-Claude is able to open the doors and negotiate on his feet, " says Martin Molyneaux, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital, a Canadian investment bank in Calgary, Alberta and an Addax underwriter.
Jean-Claude Gandur, Addax's chief executive, is pushing ahead anyway.
He still is deeply invested in Africa, operating a fuel distribution network under the Oryx brand (but unaffiliated with the newly public company) as well as Addax Bioenergy, a biofuels operation in Sierra Leone.
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In contrast with Shell--Nigerian civil unrest has disrupted one-quarter of its output for the past 18 months--Addax has had no outages, but several contractors have been taken hostage, and last February one was killed trying to escape.
The block had been previously awarded to Transcorp, which, according to Addax Chief Financial Officer Michael Ebsary, hadn't come up with either the money or the required international partner within 90 days, as stipulated by Nigerian authorities.
"Jean-Claude is able to open the doors and negotiate on his feet, " says Martin Molyneaux, an analyst at FirstEnergy (nyse: FE - news - people ) Capital, a Canadian investment bank in Calgary, Alberta and an Addax underwriter.
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