Mozambique eyes two offshore bid rounds

November 4 2011 at 02:14pm

REUTERS

Mozambique, where big gas finds by Anadarko and ENI have raised hopes it could emerge as a top African gas exporter, will offer a fresh round of offshore bids by December and again at the end of 2012, a senior government official said on Friday.

“There will be a bidding round for Lake Niassa, for the Mozambique side, by the end of November,” Carlos Zacarias, exploration manager at the National Petroleum Institute of Mozambique, said.

“So, we will invite all companies and post information on our website, but we will send invitations to thosecompanies who have contacted us and expressed an interest. That's why we say it is limited, but open,” Zacarias told Reuters on sidelines of an African oil conference.

The recent discoveries are likely to further propel the southern African nation's economy, one of the fastest growing in the world, and also a potential global coal exporter as it recovers from a debilitating civil war.

Referring to next year's bid, Zacarias said they would first acquire seismic data.

“We'll process and interpret and the area will be ready for a licensing round, we suppose, by the end of 2012,” he said of an area covering more than 150,000 square km.

Zacarias had told an African oil and gas conference that South African petrochemicals group Sasol was the biggest concession holder in the nation of 22 million.

Sasol, which owns and operates the inland Temane and Pande gas fields, said on Tuesday it would open an upgraded processing plant at the site and was confident of lifting gas production by half to 183 million gigajoules within five years.

Depending on further prospectivity, Zacarias said this could in future rise to 300 million gigajoules. - Reuters