Hydrocarbons, Nigeria ready to provide its expertise in support of the call for tenders for the 16 oil and 3 gas blocks in DRC

July 7, 2022July 7, 2022 Janet

Nigeria, the leading oil producer in Africa, has positioned itself to support the tender operation for 16 oil and 3 gas blocks that the Ministry of Hydrocarbons of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is preparing to launch on July 28 and 29, 2022.

The Nigerian Ambassador posted to the DRC, Omar Suleman, confirmed the option taken by his country with the Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons, on Tuesday July 6, 2022, during an interview granted to diplomats posted in Kinshasa.

The Nigerian Ambassador reaffirmed his country’s desire to support the Democratic Republic of Congo in this process of awarding oil blocks, rich in experience that has borne fruit.

Minister Budimbu’s guest wanted to be reassuring about the participation in this bidding process, not only of the high authorities of his country, but also of Nigerian investors specialized in the field of Hydrocarbons.

Didier Budimbu wants to materialize the vision of the Congolese Head of State, Félix Tshisekedi, aimed at consolidating inter-African cooperation.

According to the Minister of Hydrocarbons, the Democratic Republic of Congo exploits only 4.5% of its potential in Hydrocarbons.

With regard to the long-term financial outlook, the Minister indicated that, taking into account the estimated Resources of each basin by oil and para-oil companies having carried out preliminary work, the rate of recovery of oil in place set at 35 % and the average price of the barrel at 107 USD leads to the estimates of the financial benefits by basin as follows:

• For the basin of the Tanganyika graben, the resources are estimated at 7.25 billion barrels, of which the reservoir made up of rocks which are sandstones and sands amounted to 292 billion US dollars;

• For the coastal basin, the resources are estimated in the reservoir composed of rocks which are essentially sandstones and sands at 130 million barrels in the Ndunda block estimated at 5 billion USD, at 2 billion barrels in the Nganzi block estimated at 68 billion USD, at 800 million barrels in the Yema Matama Makanzi block estimated at 30 million USD;

• For the basin of the central basin, the estimated resources are 6.4 billion barrels including the rock reservoir composed of sandstone estimated at 254 billion USD.

This operation comes at the right time to support the economy of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which risks suffering the backlash of the mining products market.