The Director General of the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone, Foday B. L. Mansaray, has called on prospective oil and gas investors around the world to take advantage of the favourable fiscal regime in the country and invest in the country’s oil and gas industry.
The West African nation has about 126 oil blocks with 56 blocks covering 63,600sq. km going for licensing round while 70 blocks are going for direct negotiations.
The blocks are 1,360 square kilometres each.
The West African country is home to a working petroleum system that was supported by small-scale oil and gas discoveries, including the Venus-B1, Mercury-1 and Jupiter-1 wells by Anadarko and the Savannah-1X well by Lukoil.
Oil and gas exploration in the country began nearly four decades ago with the drilling of two wildcat exploration wells but was put on pause around 2015/2016.
Sierra Leone’s Petroleum Directorate operates under the mandate to unlock the full potential of its national hydrocarbon resources, regulating the exploration and production of affordable, reliable and cleaner energy across Sierra Leone.
Speaking last Thursday in London during the ‘Invest in Africa’ programme organised by African Energy Chamber,
Mr. Foday Mansaray stated that Sierra Leone offers access to acreage, competitive fiscal conditions, a transparent and stable government, high-quality data with reprocessing and world-class conjugate discoveries.
“The response from investors [to our fifth licensing round] has been excellent and is part of the reason we extended the deadline.
“We like to think of IOCs as partners and not investors. We try to integrate into their operations. We’ve tried to eliminate the red tape. It currently takes 85 days from application to licensing,” Mansaray said.
Sierra Leone’s Petroleum Directorate recently signed a cooperation agreement with Angola’s National Agency for Oil, Gas and Biofuels, to establish a shared commitment to promoting and intensifying collaboration across the oil and gas sector.
The Memorandum of Understanding served to outline opportunities for bilateral trade and investment; position oil and gas cooperation as mutually beneficial economically, technologically, socially and environmentally for both countries; and reaffirm stronger economic, cultural and social ties between Angola and Sierra Leone.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
