Qatar Petroleum enters Eni’s Mozambique offshore block

Qatar Petroleum has signed an agreement to farm into Eni’s Block A5A in the Angoche basin offshore Mozambique.

Following approval by the government, Eni as the operator will have a 34 percent participating interest, Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) a 15 percent participating interest, Sasol a 25.5 percent participating interest, and Qatar Petroleum a 25.5 percent participating interest.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum said, “We are pleased to sign this agreement, with our valuable partner Eni, to participate in exploring this frontier offshore basin and strengthen our presence in Mozambique.”

Block A5A lies in the Angoche basin and is located adjacent to block A5B in which an affiliate of Qatar Petroleum owns a 10 percent participating interest. The company entered into an agreement to enter the adjacent block with an ExxonMobil affiliate in December 2018.

Block A5A was officially awarded to Eni in October 2018, covers an area of 5,133 square kilometers in a completely unexplored zone off the city of Angoche.

Although the block is underexplored, operators saw success in Mozambique during exploration of Area 4 in the offshore Rovuma basin resulting in Coral, Mamba, and Agulha gas fields with estimated 2,407 billion cubic meters of gas in place.

Coral is being developed using an FLNG vessel with a capacity of around 3.4 million tons per year. The FLNG is expected to begin work in 2022.