The information was provided this Thursday by Jerónimo Paulino, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ANPG, when he made the balance of one year of activity of that institution.
In October 2019, the bidding process for nine blocks in the Namibe Basin and one block in the Benguela Basin was launched, which resulted in the reception of bids for blocks 27, 28 and 29 in the Namibe Basin by the companies Sonangol, Total and ENI.
In a press statement, Jerónimo Paulino said that the agency's supervisory body has to approve the search for new investors, taking into account that there was "a bid within a certain period".
"Outside that period we have to get the approval of the ministry, but it's a simple thing, there is no complication", said the responsible, advancing that this search will not necessarily imply the realization of new 'roadshows'.
According to the president of ANPG, the companies continue to evaluate the potential of the basin and after their evaluation should express interest in entering these blocks.
Jerónimo Paulino also said that the occupation of only 50 per cent of the available blocks "is natural", because they are border areas, that is, without sufficient information, "little explored, with little data".
"The operators buy the information to make the assessment. Some of them have had time to evaluate the information and compete, such as Exxon Mobile, Total, ENI and Sonangol. All operators continue to evaluate. It means that there will be in the future an expression of interest or not for the entry of new operators", he said.
He announced that there is already one more operator's expression of interest for the Namibe Basin.
In turn, the administrator of ANPG, Natacha Massano, said that the blocks that received bids are under negotiation.
Natacha Massano also pointed out that in 2019, as part of the concession strategy, three blocks in the Namibe Basin were also negotiated directly with Exxon Mobile.
"These were direct negotiations, which were part of the strategy to allocate concessions for the Namibe Basin. I am referring to blocks 30, 44 and 45. For these blocks, at the moment the service contract with risk is awaiting consideration by the National Assembly, as tax incentives have been requested which should deserve their validation", he said.
According to the person in charge, six blocks in the Namibe Basin are in fact being negotiated.
