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Wednesday, July 23, 2014
The government of Gabon has selected seven international companies that submitted bids in its licensing round to take part in the final round of negotiations. The seven companies submitted bids for nine of the deepwater blocks put on offer.
The government issued a release revealing the top bidders and two runner ups for the blocks. In the statement Gabon said that the Ministry of Oil would open negotiations with the lower-ranking contenders if talks with the first-choice companies were unsuccessful.
Gabon saw Impact Oil & Gas bid on Blocks D13 and D14, the only firm to submit a bid for these blocks. On Block E13 Repsol came in as the top contender, but if negotiations fail Gabon has back up bidders in ExxonMobil and Total. Independent producer Perenco was the only bidder revealed for Block E14.
ExxonMobil will begin negotiations with Gabon for Block C11, with Noble Energy and Shell waiting in the wings if things fail to progress. US independent Marathon Oil out bid Cobalt International for Block G13 and Petronas beat out Perenco and Noble Energy for Block F14, while Ophir Energy will begin negotiations for Blocks A3 and A4.
Bids for the other eight blocks put on offer (A5, A6, C12, E12, F12, F13,F15, G14) received bids but according to the Ministry they “did not reach the expectations of the Gabonese Republic,” adding that a new process for allocating these blocks would be announced shortly.
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