Mozambique: China’s CNOOC to begin offshore exploration in March

Mozambique’s Minister of Energy, Estêvão Pale, has confirmed that state-run China National Offshore Oil Co (CNOOC) will begin hydrocarbon exploration in March, drilling up to six blocks from the concession awarded in the sixth licensing round, launched in 2021. “They will start very soon. In March, they will begin preparations to commence exploration,” said the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Estêvão Pale, speaking to journalists at the Mining Indaba conference, which has been taking place since Monday in Cape Town, South Africa.

“At this moment, we are in the initial phase, with five to six more blocks,” Minister Pale added, referring to the wells to be drilled by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in deep waters of the Rovuma Basin, in the north of the country. The previous Mozambican Government approved, on 26 March 2024, five concession contract terms for hydrocarbon production — essentially natural gas — in the country, the then spokesperson of the Council of Ministers announced at the time. These contracts relate to the offshore blocks of Save (S6-A and S6-B) and Angoche (A6-G, A6-D and A6-E), with CNOOC Hong Kong and the National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH) as concessionaires, Filimão Suaze said in Maputo following the cabinet meeting.

The contracts were signed in the same year but have not yet advanced to the drilling phase. READ:CNOOC Limited subsidiaries signed EPCCs with MIREME and ENH Mozambique: Government and CNOOC sign five hydrocarbon contracts – AIM China’s CNOOC signs oil exploration, production contracts with Mozambique – Reuters “Within the framework of implementing the mineral resources policy (…), the Government of Mozambique continued with actions aimed at attracting further investment into the oil sector,” the Government spokesperson added at the time. In December 2022, Mozambique’s National Petroleum Institute (INP) announced the award of these five offshore blocks to CNOOC, following the sixth licensing round for gas and oil exploration, launched on 25 November 2021.

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That sixth licensing round covered 16 blocks: five in the Rovuma Basin, seven in Angoche, two in the Zambezi Delta and two in Save, totalling more than 92,000 square kilometres. One of the regions, the Rovuma Basin, located offshore beneath the seabed off the coast of Cabo Delgado (in the north of the country), already has areas allocated.

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