Sierra Leone is awaiting the outcome of a recently launched offshore 3D seismic survey, the first in more than ten years, before it decides whether to open another oil and gas licensing round later this year.
GeoPartners, working alongside the Petroleum Directorate, kicked off a six-week seismic campaign last month to reduce exploration risks in the country’s offshore basin.
Director General of the Petroleum Directorate, Foday Mansaray, noted that TGS and other partners are currently reprocessing the data with the aim of presenting it to potential investors by October.
He added that the country may offer as many as 60 offshore blocks during its sixth licensing round, following a previous round that ended in 2023. Past efforts by Anadarko and Lukoil led to oil discoveries, but none were commercially viable.
Mansaray clarified that the upcoming auction will likely exclude ultra-deepwater blocks, which remain available through direct negotiations.
He estimated that the offshore basin holds around 30 billion barrels of oil equivalent, including the sizable Vega prospect first identified by Anadarko, which alone contains about 3 billion barrels.
Positioned along the Atlantic coast between oil-producing neighbors like Ivory Coast and Senegal, Sierra Leone aims to strengthen its reputation as a promising frontier for exploration.
Mansaray said major companies, including Shell, Petrobras, Hess, and Murphy Oil, have purchased licensed data from the country over the past 18 months.
He pointed to Namibia and Guyana as examples of countries that experienced exploration success after periods of dormancy, expressing confidence that Sierra Leone is approaching a major breakthrough.
“I firmly believe that Sierra Leone is on the cusp of something big, and we are going to be one of the next big and successful stories,” he said.
sourec:www.reuters.com
