Mozambique has shortlisted 12 of the 13 companies that have applied under the government’s sixth round for oil exploration licenses, authorities announced late Wednesday.
The National Petroleum Institute said in a statement that only Nigeria’s Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production was not approved for pre-qualification.
Shortlisted to submit bids for the 16 offshore and onshore blocks on offer when the sixth licencing round formally opens in late August are India’s ONGC, Eni Mozambico, ExxonMobil Mozambique (Offshore 6), Petro China International, Sinopec International Energy Investment and TotalEnergies EP New Venture.
Six other firms qualified for the next stage as non-operators. These are Discover Exploration, Novatek, ONGC Videsh Ltd, Qatar Petroleum Mozambique, RN Angoche and Sasol Africa.
To progress past the pre-qualification round, companies that want to bid as operators were required to prove that they had a market capitalisation or assets of at least US$1 billion, while non-operators had to show a market capitalisation of US$125 million.
Under the next stage, the companies will licence geoscience data in order to evaluate the areas of interest. Companies can see data at INP’s physical or virtual dataroom.
Companies will have until 31 August to submit their bids, with the results to be announced on 30 November.
Of the 16 blocks on offer, five are in the Rovuma basin, seven in Angoche basin, two in the Zambezi Delta and another two in Save Province.
JN/APA