Twenty companies are bidding for contracts to extract oil from nine new offshore oil blocs in the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone, a Sao Tome official said on Monday.
“ExxonMobil, Statoil, ERHC (Environmental Remediation Holding Corporation) and Nigerian companies are among those interested. ChevronTexaco made the best offer of $123-million for bloc 1,” said national oil council member Afonso Varela.
Despite an attempted coup in the archipelago on July 16, plans to auction off the drilling rights have remained on track, with nine blocs to be awarded by the end of the year at a minimum of $30-million each, Varela added.
According to a February 2001 accord between Nigeria and Sao Tome, 40% of the proceeds are to go to the former Portuguese colony and its population of 140 000.
That could easily double the annual budget of one of the world’s most indebted countries.
But Prime Minister Maria das Neves de Sousa told the daily newspaper Publico on October 19 that escape from the poverty that grips the country would only come by giving priority to the agriculture, fishing and tourism sectors.
President Fradique de Menezes, a businessman elected in 2001, had demanded that exploration agreements with ExxonMobil, ERHC and the Norwegian group Petroleum Geo-Services be renegotiated earlier this year before the auctions took place. – AFP