Chevron explores'strategic West Africa' after Guinea Bissau offshore

Chevron wants to increase its land area in West Africa. This is a strategic part of the world for the U.S. major oil company. A senior executive revealed this on Monday, after striking an agreement to explore oil in two offshore blocks off Guinea-Bissau.

The blocks are located in the Mauritania-Senegal-Gambia Bissau and Conakry basin (MSGBC), a geological area in West Africa which has been a focus of the oil and gas industry after recent large discoveries such as GTA and Sangomar.

Liz Schwarze is Chevron’s vice president of exploration. She said: "We continue to be interested in acquiring additional acreage on the continent."

She added, "Sometimes, you find gas but the entry premise really is to explore for oil." This was in line with Chevron's strategy of adding "high quality acreage" worldwide.

Chevron will operate Blocks 5B & 6B, with 90% of the working interest. Petroguin, Guinea Bissau's state-owned oil company, owns the rest.

Schwarze said that Chevron would interpret 2D and 3-D seismic data covering the two blocks located in deep or ultra-deep waters.

She said that there were a lot of geological features and plays in the area, but it was still too early to predict when the first exploration holes could be drilled. (Reporting and editing by Alexander Winning, Alexander Smith, Wendell Roelf)

(source: Reuters)