28th edition of Africa oil week in Cape Town, Didier Budimbu accelerates the promotion of oil and gas resources in the DRC

The Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Didier Budimbu, took part, on Tuesday October 4, 2022, in the 28th edition of Africa Oil Week in CapeTown in South Africa.

The objective for this member of the Warriors Government is to promote the tender process for 27 oil blocks and 3 gas blocks launched by the Government since July 2022.

During these meetings, Didier Budimbu had the privilege of presenting the oil and gas potential of his country to the heads of African and international oil companies.

At this annual meeting of the African oil industry, the Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons is accompanied by the Managing Director of SONAHYDROC SA, Mrs. Sylvie Ntazambi Bizitu, as well as Matt Tyrell representing the company Xcalibur Multiphysics.

The boss of the DRC Hydrocarbons took advantage of his speech to invite the oil companies to join the station for the departure without return, the train of the tender process officially launched on July 28, 2022 in Kinshasa by the President of the Republic, Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo.

Moreover, he noted that the ” so- called prospective ” hydrocarbon resources of the DRC can no longer remain as ornaments in the Congolese subsoil. Because, he continued, the Government of the DRC must meet the multiple needs of the population by developing its hydrocarbon resources which are diverse and varied in order to concretize the priority actions of the Hydrocarbons sector and achieve the energy security of the country. country.

In front of nearly 1,638 high-level delegates from energy sector companies from around the world, 32 African Ministers and 2 representatives of the African Union as well as 84 delegates from the international press, the Minister of Hydrocarbons reassured and guaranteed to potential investors of the stability of the legal and fiscal regime of the DRC in the Hydrocarbons sector in order to secure the execution of oil projects with the aim of achieving “win-win” partnerships between the parties.

Minister Didier Budimbu officially announced that the stage of submitting applications from companies or consortiums for the pre-selection phase of three gas blocks in the Graben du Lac Kivu will be closed on October 10, 2022 and two days later the public counting of applications will take place. recorded live on national television, a guarantee of the transparency of the procedure in progress.

Referring to the schedule of activities, the selection phase of the aforementioned gas blocks will be closed at the end of October 2022 by the signing of production sharing contracts, ” CPP ” with the bidding companies which will be selected at the end of the evaluation of their technical and financial offers by the ad hoc committee in charge of organizing calls for tenders.
However, the submission of applications from interested companies or consortiums for the oil blocks will go until January 29, 2023.

As for the selection phase, the allocation of hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation rights through the signing of production sharing contracts with the bidding companies which will be selected after submission of their technical and financial offers will take place by the month of June 2023.

The Spanish company engaged in the promotion and marketing of tenders under a technical assistance contract, Xcalibur Multiphysics, presented the summary of the geological framework of the oil and gas blocks with a focus on the availability of technical oil data for each sedimentary basin of the DRC before the Managing Director of SONAHYDROC SA, Mrs. Sylvie Ntazambi Bizitu, can present the assets of the portfolio of the National Hydrocarbons Company of Congo that she heads.

After his speech, Minister Budimbu had discussions behind closed doors with the US Secretary of State for Energy, who expressed his availability to accompany and support the tendering process while promising support from the United States in America for its long experience in the energy sector.

In view of the business opportunities presented by the DRC, the current calls for tenders are an attractive opportunity. This did not fail to arouse real interest among several oil and gas companies who quickly registered to snatch interviews with Minister Didier Budimbu.

In this momentum, on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, he had exchanges in particular with the representative of the Chinese oil company SINOPEC, the largest supplier of petroleum and petrochemical products, the second largest oil and gas producer in China, and the representative of the Shell company, etc.

It should be remembered that this 28th edition of Africa Oil Week gave the opportunity to meet investors from all over the world and the stand of the DRC, in its exhibition, was among the very attractive spaces.