Sierra Leone is West Africa's new oil and gas frontier

A senior government official announced on Thursday that Sierra Leone would wait to see the results of its recently launched offshore 3D seismic study, its first for over a decade. This will allow it to open its next round of oil and gas licenses later this year.

GeoPartners, in partnership with the petroleum directorate of the government, began the six-week survey last month to reduce the risk associated with exploration in the offshore basin of Sierra Leone.

Foday Mansaray is the director general of the Sierra Leone Petroleum Directorate. He said that the reprocessing was taking place with TGS. We hope to have something ready to launch in October.

He said that the West African nation, where Anadarko Petroleum, then Russia's Lukoil, and the country of West Africa, where oil was discovered but not in commercial quantities by Lukoil and Anadarko Petroleum, previously, could offer up to 60 offshore blocks in its sixth round oil and gas auction. The previous round ended in 2023.

He said that the new blocks will not include areas so deep as to be open to direct negotiation.

Mansaray estimated that offshore Sierra Leone, there are 30 billion barrels worth of oil equivalent, which includes the large Vega Prospect identified by Anadarko earlier, with 3 billion barrels recoverable.

Sierra Leone, located along the Atlantic coast and between oil-producing countries such as Ivory Coast in the south and Senegal in the north, is eager to establish itself as a new frontier for exploration.

Mansaray stated that Shell, Petrobras, Hess, and Murphy Oil purchased some of the licensed data in the last 18 months.

He cited Namibia and Guyana, where exploration boomed after years of inactivity. Sierra Leone may be close to a breakthrough.

"I am convinced that Sierra Leone will be one of the biggest and most successful stories in the future." Reporting by Wendell Roelf. Mark Potter (Editing by Wendell Roelf)

(source: Reuters)