Equatorial Guinea starts 2016 oil and gas licensing round

Equatorial Guinea’s ministry of mines, industry and energy on Monday launched the country’s oil and gas blocks licensing round 2016. 

Companies with the requisite and technical competency to explore Equatorial Guinea’s blocks have been invited to submit letters of interest to the ministry.

According to the ministry’s information, an average of discovery success in Equatorial Guinea is 42 percent with 48 discoveries made to date.

In order to support further exploration and production, Equatorial Guinea is pushing ahead to develop energy infrastructure, including storage, petrochemicals and floating LNG.

The 2016 licensing round makes available all acreages not currently operated or under direct negotiation. This comprises 37 blocks in total, 32 of them offshore. This includes Block A-12, newly relinquished by Marathon Oil, which has hosted multiple oil discoveries.

Also, open is the former EG-05 block which was once operated by Glencore plc. EG-05 was then split into four prospective offshore licenses which have never been drilled, the ministry said.

The bidding for the Equatorial Guinea acreage concludes November 30.