China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the Chinese energy major with international and domestic LNG interests, has signed independent exploration and production agreement with the southeast African nation of Mozambique near where another Chinese major holds LNG project stakes.
CNOOC said five of its subsidiaries had signed oil exploration and production concession contracts with Mozambique's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), the Mozambican state-owned hydrocarbons company.
CNOOC said in a statement that the contract is for five offshore blocks covering a total area of about 29,000 square kilometres in water depths ranging from 500 metres to 2,500 metres.
“The first phase of the exploration period is four years, with five CNOOC subsidiaries serving as operators in the exploration and development phases, having independent operator rights and interests,” CNOOC explained.
CNOOC said its activities in the five blocks would focus on oil exploration under the contract covering S6-A, S6-B, A6-D, A6-E and A6-G which are all located offshore Mozambique.
CNOOC’s blocks are in the Angoche offshore region of Mozambique’s Nampula province located just south of the troubled Cabo Delagdo province where an onshore LNG project has been suspended for several years because of an armed incursion.
