A flame blazes on top of a gas burn off venting pipe . Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
São Tomé and Príncipe’s National Oil Agency has begun negotiations with a consortium to sign an oil exploration contract in Block 01 of the archipelago’s Exclusive Economic Zone, the agency’s chief executive said.
The consortium includes Total E&P Activités Pétrolières and Angola’s oil and gas company Sonangol. Orlando Pontes, who was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with São Tome’s Prime Minister, accompanied by the director of Total E&P Activités Pétrolières, Charles Fernandes, representing the consortium, said that the agreement should be signed “in a few weeks.”
The negotiations are the result the interest shown by Total E & P Activités Pétrolières in prospecting for oil in that block following a public tender launched by the National Oil Agency last May.
In addition to the Exclusive Economic Zone, São Tomé and Príncipe has a joint venture with Nigeria, based on a treaty signed in 2001 that establishes 60 percent of revenues for the Nigerian State and the remaining 40 percent for the São Tomé archipelago. MDT/Macauhub
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