Maputo, 24 May (AIM) – The Mozambican government and the Chinese oil company CNOOC Hong Kong Holding signed, on Thursday, in Maputo, five concession contracts for oil and gas prospection in the sedimentary basin of Angoche, off the coast of the Northern Province of Nampula.
A sixth contract was signed with the Italian energy company, ENI.
At the signing ceremony, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Carlos Zacarias, said this signing is the culmination of a long process that began in November 2021, when the sixth public tender for the concession of areas for exploration and production was launched.
The initiative, he said, is part of the government’s strategy to attract more investment to the hydrocarbons sector, as well as increasing knowledge of the geological potential of the sedimentary basins.
“The signing of these contracts represents a huge success. The policy, and the legal and regulatory framework approved by our government for hydrocarbon operations in Mozambique have contributed greatly to achieving this level of execution”, he said.
According to the Minister, after the successive supervision of the contracts, CNOOC will be able to carry out the necessary oil operations and intensive research program, which includes drilling a minimum of four deep-water wells, which could lead to the discovery of more petroleum resources in the country.
“We are optimistic about the concession areas, as a result of the preliminary studies carried out in the Angoche and Save sedimentary basins. However, gauging the commercial quantities of the existing resources will depend on the quality of the complementary surveys that CNOOC will carry out,” Zacarias said.
He recommended that CNOOC comply with the work programme established in the concession contracts, always observing the petroleum and related legislation in force, particularly environmental legislation.
The Minister also called on the Chinese company to use technologies that have the least possible impact on the environment, in order to allow oil operations to coexist with other economic activities in a sustainable way, as well as to observe good international practices in use in the oil industry to guarantee the sustainable production of oil and natural gas.
No representative of CNOOC was willing to speak to the media. The Ministry of Mineral Resurces said the local CNOOC officials had not received authorization from their head office to speak publicly.
The chairperson of the board of the National Petroleum Institute (INP), Nazario Balangane, was not so reticent. “In this first phase”, he said, “we are talking about eight year contracts for prospection. Nothing has yet been discovered. If there are no discoveries, obviously the contracts end. But if there are discoveries, we move on to another phase, in which the size of the field is assessed. And when production begins, if there are gains, then that is when the production sharing model begins”.
(AIM)
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