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Gabon excludes three companies from offshore oil licensing round

The Oil Ministry of Gabon has decided to exclude three companies from the list of winners in the offshore oil licensing round held in October 2013, as these companies are considered unable to meet the huge investments in offshore oil required. Total, which had initially been excluded from the licensing round, has now been invited.

Gabon had awarded 13 oil and gas blocks to 11 companies including Noble (which was awarded the block C-11 in partnership with Exxon Mobil), Cobalt (which was awarded the block G-13 in partnership with Marathon) and Elenilto (which was awarded the block F-12 in partnership with Petronas). Other winners of the licensing round are Ophir Energy, Impact, Maratho, Perenco, and consortia Repsol-Exxon Mobil, Petronas-Eni and Perenco-Petronas. Gabon expects these new blocks will reverse the downward trend in production and enable to reach a production forecast of 230,000 bbl/d in 2014. The country aims to double its output to 500,000 bbl/d later.