Sierra Leone Rolls Fourth Round Deadline
The deadline for bids in Sierra Leone's fourth offshore licensing round, launched by its petroleum directorate on January 25 2018, has been extended until September 27, from the original deadline of June 28.
According to its director general Raymond Kargbo, the decision aims to let the West African country benefit from the rising trend in oil prices. He said this increase will attract investors to the five shallow, deep and very deep offshore blocks included in the round. They cover a total area of 31,653 km2.
Since it began oil and gas exploration, Sierra Leone made no major commercial discovery but the authorities remain confident, following recent gas and oil discoveries offshore Senegal and Mauritania. “We are still in the exploration phase, but all the right ingredients have been discovered here to suggest the existence of commercial quantities,” Kargbo said recently.
The deferral may not be entirely due to the reason given by Kargbo. UK-based geological consultancy Getech, which is advising the petroleum directorate, said last month the deferral was a consequence of "an extended election period, resulting from the run-off between the two main political parties." Julius Maada Bio, who helped lead military coups in 1992 and 1996, was sworn in as new president in early April.
Eleven firms were awarded contracts during Sierra Leone’s previous licensing round in 2012, including Chevron, Noble Energy, and Lukoil, but none decided to renew their initial licences as exploration activity offshore Africa dwindled after the 2014 oil price slump.
Last year Oslo-listed African Petroleum Corp (APC), part owned by Frank Timis, negotiated an extension on its two deepwater Sierra Leone licences conditional on committing, prior to November 1 2018, to drill one exploration well on each licence (see yellow blocks in map below, courtesy of APC). Both are ultra-deep licences with water depth of 3,000 to 3,600 metres.
APC however has had similar licences lapsed by nearby Gambia and withdrawn by Senegal, due to a lack of exploration activity.
