Gabon signs seven oil contracts
Gabon’s Oil Ministry recently signed a total of seven oil contracts with six companies as part of an offshore licensing round expected to attract at least $1.1bn in investment to the sector. The Central African country hopes that this tender, its tenth, will help it reverse a decline in output due to maturing onshore fields. The former OPEC member currently produces about 230,000 b/d, down from a peak of close to 400,000 b/d in the 1990s. The contracts were signed with Repsol, Marathon, Noble Energy, Petronas, Woodside and Impact Oil & Gas.
‘This is the first licensing round in Gabon since 2000 and the awarded production sharing contracts have been negotiated in accordance with the government’s new production sharing contract and in light of anticipated legislative changes,’ commented law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, which advised Impact on the negotiation and award of three of the deepwater offshore oil contracts.
