Africa’s hottest licence rounds spur investor interest

CAPE TOWN, 9  October 2024 – Three African regions announced major licensing rounds on the main stage of AOW: Investing In African Energy, the continent’s leading oil, gas and energy event – stimulating significant investor interest on the sidelines of the event.

Liberia, Tanzania and Zanzibar all outlined bidding rounds for the licensing of new blocks for oil and gas exploration, inviting bids from upstream stakeholders.

“Liberia is ready for business,” said Saifuah Mai Gray, President and CEO of the National Oil Company of Liberia. “We are willing and ready to work with all of you, our partners, so that we all can succeed.”

Elaborating on the Liberia licensing round, Rufus Tarnue, deputy director general & head of technical services at the Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority, said there would be 29 blocks available in terms of the latest licensing programme.

The programme offers a three-phase exploration plan with flexible terms, including a 100% cost recovery for pre-PSC seismic data. The process will involve a pre-qualification phase, followed by block selection and negotiation.

Energy data and intelligence company TGS is supporting the process, through its portfolio of multi-client subsurface data for the available blocks, providing more than 24 000km2 of 2D seismic data and over 26 000km2 of 3D data.

Tarnue and Gray both emphasised Liberia’s stable government, zero tolerance for corruption, and strategic infrastructure investments. “Rest assured, we can guarantee your investment,” said Tarnue.

The Tanzania licensing round – the country’s fifth – sees the country offering 24 open defined exploration blocks in the offshore Indian Ocean, and in Lake Tanganyika, in the country’s west.

The round will be an open, competitive tender, and will officially open on 5 March, 2025. ‘

The terms of the licences will involve an exploration period of nine years, and a development and production period of 25 years, with a possible further 20-year extension.

The offshore blocks also come with geotechnical data, including gravity/magnetic data, bathymetric and seismicity data as well as regional technical reports.

“We encourage all upstream operators to participate,” said Charles Sangweni, director general of the Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority of Tanzania. “Our country has a well-developed gas pipeline infrastructure and is ready to go to the next phase of our development.

Discussing Zanzibar’s first licensing round, Zanzibar Petroleum Regulatory Authority MD Mohammed Said, said the process was aimed at building a resilient economy for the benefit of Zanzibar’s people through the sustainable development of its offshore petroleum resources.

The Zanzibar licensing round consists of eight blocks, ranging in size between 2 846km² and 5 666km² at depths between 500m and 3 000m. It covers a total licence area of 31 883km² and comes with 10 145 linear kilometres of 2D seismic data and a five-year exploration roadmap.

“We are delighted to welcome investors to take advantage of the enormous upstream opportunities available in Zanzibar,” he said. Paul Sinclair, CEO of AOW owner Sankofa Events, said the licensing round announcements were a key part of what the event stands for.

“AOW has always been about upstream dealmaking,” said Sinclair. “When these licensing rounds are announced, there is immediate interest right across the industry, among supermajors, independents and financiers alike. African countries are opening up an accelerating amount of exploration and development opportunities, and the time to invest is now “

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