Senegal delays oil licensing round by a month
Senegal has delayed the launch of an oil and gas licensing round due on Wednesday until Nov. 4 as contract documents still need to be finalised, oil minister Mahamadou Makhtar Cisse said.
"We need to ensure the legal framework for investors," he told Reuters on the sidelines of an oil and power conference in Cape Town.
Senegal's ambitions to become a major oil and gas producer have been overshadowed by allegations President Macky Sall's brother was involved in fraud related to two offshore gas blocks being developed by BP.
Asked whether the scandal had dented investor appetite, Cisse told Reuters "We have not measured a negative impact."
Prosecutors in Senegal launched an inquiry in June, and the president's brother Aliou Sall resigned from his government post following the allegations reported by the BBC.
Senegal, where oil was discovered in 1961, expects all its offshore projects to come online between 2022 and 2026, the minister said.
According to the International Monetary Fund, between 2014 and 2017, oil and gas reserves worth more than one-billion barrels of oil and 40-trillion cubic feet of gas, most of it shared with Mauritania, were found.
"Discoveries are important but will not lead to a major transformation of the economy, with hydrocarbons expected to make up not more than 5% of GDP," the IMF said in a January country report.
The new licensing round will be open for six months and will seek developers for ten to twelve offshore fields, Mamadou Faye, managing director of national oil company Petrosen told Reuters.
The IMF forecasts growth of around 6.9% this year for Senegal before this rises to 11.6% in 2022 when first oil is expected to flow.
Kosmos Energy, a US-listed oil and gas exploration company, said last month the results of its appraisal drilling offshore Senegal were good enough to consider a second liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in the country.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation