Qatar Petroleum Buys into Mozambique Blocks
Qatar Petroleum said December 8 that it has entered into an agreement with an ExxonMobil affiliate to acquire a 10% participating interest in three exploration blocks in the Angoche and Zambezi basins in Mozambique.
Following the agreement, which still requires regulatory approval, ExxonMobil (operator) will have a 50% participating interest; Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) 20%; Rosneft 20%, and Qatar Petroleum 10%.
"We are pleased to sign this agreement, with our long-time partner ExxonMobil, to participate in exploring these frontier offshore basins in the Republic of Mozambique. This is a milestone for Qatar Petroleum as it marks its first foray into Mozambique’s promising offshore basins," Qatar's energy minister who is also the CEO of Qatar Petroleum Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said. "This signature is very much in line with our growth strategy in Qatar Petroleum with a new country entry to prospective frontier basins with significant hydrocarbon resource potential."
The offshore blocks are A5-B which lies in the Angoche Basin, and Z5-C and Z5-D which lie in the Zambezi Basin. Both basins are frontier and underexplored. The two Zambezi blocks have a total area of about 10,200 km2 with water depths ranging from about 200 to 2,000 metres, while the Angoche basin block has an area of about 6,450 km2 with water depths ranging from about 1,800 to 2,500 metres.