Gabon offers five deepwater blocks in 11th licensing round

Gabon has launched its 11th Licensing Round offering five deepwater blocks in the South Gabon Salt Basin.

The round was formally opened on October 27, 2015, by the Gabon’s Minister for Petroleum and Hydrocarbons, Etienne Dieudonné Ngoubou at the 22nd Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

Minister Ngoubu said: “The Oil Ministry has very high hopes for Gabon’s new 11th licensing round and are excited by the opportunities for the successful development of this highly prospective region.

“New deepwater exploration wells offshore Gabon, such as Shell’s recent Leopard discovery, indicate a significant pre-salt basin and the new 3D multi-client data acquired by CGG greatly upgrades the resolution of the pre-salt image, further enhancing the chances of exploration success,” the Minister added.

CGG to help with promotion of the round

CGG, a French seismic acquisition specialist, has been appointed to advise the Direction Generale des Hydrocarbures (DGH) on the promotion of the licensing round.

In a press release on Wednesday, CGG said that the round would be promoted by a series of roadshows starting in Libreville on November 24, followed by Paris on November 26, Singapore on November 30, and Houston on December 3, 2015. A delegation from the Direction Generale des Hydrocarbures (DGH) as well as a technical team from CGG will be attending to answer any questions, the French company added.

The round will be open for five months starting October 27, 2015, and bids can be submitted from February 15, 2016, onwards and by no later than March 31, 2016. Prequalification for the bid round will require the purchase of a minimum amount of seismic data.

Better imaging of underexplored area

The French company said it has worked directly with the Ministry to acquire over 25,000 km² of new 3D BroadSeis multi-client seismic data.

CGG said that the new survey would enable better imaging of the underexplored area, and covers areas downdip and adjacent to recent pre-Aptian salt discoveries, such as Leopard, Diaman, Ruche and Tortue. It will benefit from integrated gravity and magnetic interpretation to enhance the pre-salt imaging and additional, complementary datasets including offshore hydrocarbon seeps and a full geological prospectivity report will be available, CGG has said.

Jean-Georges Malcor, CEO, CGG, said: “Ever since we acquired our first geophysical survey there in 1932, CGG has actively supported Gabon’s development of its natural resources. We are delighted to continue our fruitful cooperation with the Gabonese Republic by offering our full portfolio of Geoscience expertise to help promote the 11th Licensing Round.”

“Given the high quality of the intermediate results we have seen so far from our recent BroadSeis survey, we expect the final results to be a significant resource for clients to de-risk this promising exploration arena. We are pleased to announce that several companies have already pre-committed to the dataset.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff

[mappress mapid=”2819″]