As follow up to 2020 licensee bid round that was delayed by COVID and exit of the American company in 2017, ExxonMobil Corp. has applied to prequalify for four offshore oil blocks in Liberia, the West African country’s state oil regulator said in its recent statement. Once prequalified, Exxon will be invited to negotiate a Petroleum Sharing Agreement for Blocks 15, 16, 22 and 24 in the Liberia Basin, the Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority said.

Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority (LPRA), launched its 2020 offshore license round on April 15, 2020.  The Liberia License Round, 2020 is comprised of nine (9) blocks in the highly prospective Harper Basin.  The Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority (LPRA) has pre-qualified Seven (7) Liberian Companies.

 Nine (9) companies expressed interest to be pre-qualified but the evaluation panel denied two companies for lack of legal and financial competence. The seven companies include: DEMUS Exploration and Production, Jungle Energy Power INC, New Millennium Oil and Gas, Africa Oil and Gas Inc, Green Petroleum (Liberia) Limited, MAC-Africa Petroleum Inc and the TSC Global Inc.

The pre-qualification of Liberian companies is in line with the New Petroleum Law of Liberia which sets aside a mandatory minimum 5% equity interest in all petroleum agreements to companies owned by natural persons of Liberian citizenship. The list of Liberian companies that has been pre-qualified by the LPRA will be submitted to qualified international bidders for possible partnership in fulfillment of the amended petroleum law.