Eni-led JV bags Mozambique block

Italian major Eni announced Friday that it had, together with its joint venture partners, been awarded an offshore exploration block in Mozambique’s fifth bidding round.

The 5,145-square-kilometre block A5-A, located in the Northern Zambesi Basin in the Angoche area, sits at a water depth of 200-1,800 metres.

Eni’s local subsidiary Eni Mozambico will operate the block with a 34-percent interest. Other shareholders include Norway’s Statoil (25.5 percent), South African energy and chemical firm Sasol (25.5 percent), and Mozambique’s National Hydrocarbons Company (15 percent).

“The Angoche area is a very promising frontier basin with significant oil potential and builds on Statoil’s exploration strategy of access at scale,” Nick Maden, senior vice-president for Statoil’s exploration activities in the Western Hemisphere, said in a company statement.

Oil and gas giants such as ExxonMobil and Russia’s Rosneft also won bids in the 15-block round.

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