Auction on DRC oil blocks: Budimbu wants to forge an agreement with Zambia to facilitate operations
The report on the official submission of data from the Tanganyika graben and the central basin as well as the valuation of methane gas from Lake Kivu was on the agenda of the 54th meeting of the Council of Ministers. This, with a view to the official launch of calls for tenders relating to the 16 oil blocks from July 28 to 29 of the current year.
From the outset, the Minister of Hydrocarbons, Didier Budimbu, began his presentation by reminding the council that on Saturday May 14, 2022, the Prime Minister had chaired the ceremony devoted to the tripartite agreement concluded in Paris on September 10, 2021 between the Minister of Hydrocarbons and the companies Geo Sigmoid and Clayhall Group DMCC in order to assess the oil potential of the sedimentary basins below: coastal, central basin, Graben Tanganyika, Graben Albertine and Graben du Lac Kivu.
“This study carried out in execution of one of the flagship actions of the government program focused on increasing oil production allows the constitution of a package of technical data of the blocks awarded by call for tenders for 16 oil blocks selected in the within the sedimentary basins mentioned above. The financial prospects are enormous for the country”, reports the report of the meeting made by the spokesman of the government, Patrick Muyaya.
Regarding the development of methane gas from Lake Kivu, the Minister of Hydrocarbons first indicated that this gas is estimated at around 66 billion normal cubic meters of methane and 300 billion of carbon dioxide.
“To set this valuation in motion, the Minister of Hydrocarbons has requested the support of the government, in particular by making funds available for the collection of geo-oil, digital and physical data, which will allow the requesting companies to consult and access to data after payment, He also requested authorization to proceed with the renewal of the memorandum of understanding between our government and the United Republic of Tanzania for the cooperation and promotion of the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the graben Tanganyika signed in Dar-es-salam on October 3, 2016 for a period of 3 years, i.e. on October 3, 2019. The Minister of Hydrocarbons finally requested the discharge of the council to proceed with the signing ofa similar cooperation agreement with the Republic of Zambia to allow the future operators selected to carry out exploration operations on Lake Tanganyika and the Moero Block on the lake of the same name shared between the two countries with complete peace of mind”, adds the account. report of the meeting.
The allocation of new “hydrocarbon rights” according to the government, aims on the one hand to “improve State revenue”, on the other hand to “increase national production which must leave the modest area of 25,000 barrels/day.It comes at a time when the DRC is facing the harmful effects of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis characterized by the rise in petroleum and cereal products.
