QatarEnergy has entered into an agreement with Shell to acquire a 40% working interest in the Exploration and Production Agreement pertaining to the C-10 block for natural gas exploration, located offshore southern Mauritania. The operator Shell will hold a 50% interest, while Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures (SMH) will hold the remaining 10%. The C-10 block covers a total area of approximately 11,500 km2 and is located approximately 50 km off the coast of Mauritania in water depths of between 50 to 2,000 meters.
In 2021, Mauritania did not yet produce natural gas but had proved reserves reaching 50 bcm. In 2022, Mauritania announced that gas reserves in the country were estimated at more than 100 tcf (2,830 bcm), including the Tortue gas field shared with neighbouring Senegal. In February 2023, a consortium comprising Britain’s BP, the Senegalese state-owned oil and gas company Petrosen, SMH and the US upstream group Kosmos Energy confirmed the development concept for the second phase of the BP-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) LNG project with total capacity of between 2.5-3 Mt/year.