Global energy investors have recently gathered for global event the Africa Oil Week held in Cape Town, South Africa from October 3-7, 2022. Gabon National Energy unveiled its oil blocks currently up for sale. This has attracted several investors from different countries, such as the oil company China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). And the latter, which is already present in Gabon, has decided to take six new oil blocks and wishes to conclude the agreements on these blocks before December 2022, learned Le Nouveau Gabon from the Ministry of Petroleum.

“CNOOC executives are currently soliciting six new blocks that they want to sign before December. That is, before the drilling of their next well, which they have planned for the month of December. We reassured them that Gabon is currently open for the signing of all oil contracts,” said Edgard Mbina Kombila, Director General of Hydrocarbons. 

 “I have instructed the teams to work quickly so that we can meet around the table by October 15 to begin discussing economic and tax terms with this company, which has been very aggressive in terms of research petroleum. So we also want, as the company wanted, to sign these six contracts before the end of November,” continued the Director General of Hydrocarbons. CNOOC is already present in Gabon where it is currently operating on two of the deepwater blocks (BC9 and BC10).

Apart from the Chinese company, several other investors have shown interest in the Gabonese sedimentary basin. And several of them want to invest in it, like the American company Apache. Recall that it is since November 2018 that the Gabonese State has launched the auction campaign of 35 maritime oil blocks in the form of a call for tenders, including 23 in deep offshore and 12 in conventional offshore. The auctioning of these oil blocks was intended, according to the Ministry of Petroleum, among other things, to combat the decline in long-term production and with the aim of renewing the country’s reserves through the intensification of exploration. .