The Republic of Guinea has launched its first offshore licensing round. The licensing round was announced by Diakaria Koulibaly, CEO of Office National du Petrole (ONAP), at the NOC assembly, in Paris.
The round will be open for six months from October 2017, with awards expected by October 2018. Companies will be able to submit bids on all open blocks.
“This is an exciting time for The Republic of Guinea. The recent successes in the Northern MSGBC Basin have increased the industry interest in this relatively under explored region, and this chain of success will steadily and inevitably flow down south to us. We currently have an active rig in our waters, drilling what we hope will be the first of many commercial successes,” Koulibaly said.
The news of the licensing round announcement was first shared by the marine seismic data specialist TGS-Nopec, which on Monday said it had some 14,000 km of modern, high quality 2D data coverage over the blocks on offer.
As for the active rig Koulibaly has mentioned, he is referring to the Pacific Scirroco drillship which entered the Guinea shelf waters on May 21.
The rig will be used by Hypedynamics for the Fatala prospect.