QatarEnergy said on Sunday it has signed an agreement with Shell PLC to acquire a 40 percent stake in Mauritania’s offshore C10 block.
The exploration and production deal, if approved by the Mauritanian government, leaves operator Shell with a 50 percent interest, QatarEnergy said in a press release. Shell owns 90 percent of the project and state-owned Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures et de Patrimoine Minier has the remaining 10 percent through a pact signed with the West African country in 2018.
The block covers 4,440.17 square miles (11,500 square kilometers), QatarEnergy said. It is about 31.07 miles (50 km) offshore in a water depth of about 164,042 feet (50 meters) to 6,561.68 feet (2,000 m), according to the company.
The Shell-Mauritania deal marked the “new entry of another major oil company offshore Mauritania in less than two years, along with Exxon Mobil, BP and Total,” the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy said and Mines of Mauritania announcing on 23 July 2018. treaty.
The QatarEnergy-Shell partnership “builds on our exploration footprint in Africa,” said QatarEnergy CEO and Qatari Minister of Energy Affairs Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi.
The government-controlled corporation last month announced a light oil discovery at the Jonker-1X deepwater well in Namibia. The discovery was made under exploration license PEL-39, in which QatarEnergy and Shell each own a 45% interest and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia holds the remaining 10%.
QatarEnergy said in a March 6 statement that Jonker-1X was its third oil discovery in the southern African nation after the Graff-1 well and the Venus-1X prospect in the Orange Basin off the coast of namibia
He added: “In addition to the PEL-39 exploration license, QatarEnergy also has interests in PEL-56 (30%) and PEL-91 (28.33%) offshore Namibia, with a total area of 28,327 km2. [10,937.12 square miles]”.
On December 13, 2021, QatarEnergy said it had signed agreements with Shell to buy a 17 percent stake each in Blocks 3 and 4 off the Egyptian side of the Red Sea.
On July 4, 2021, while still Qatar Petroleum, it said it had signed agreements with TotalEnergies to acquire stakes in three South African offshore exploration blocks: 30 percent in DWOB, 29.17 percent in OBD and 25 percent in South Outeniqua. Qatar Petroleum in 2020 already made two oil discoveries in South Africa in block 11B/12B of the Outeniqua Basin together with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Main Street Ltd and TotalEnergies, according to a Qatar Petroleum press release on 28 October of 2020.
Qatar Petroleum also said in 2019 that it had entered exploration businesses in Angola and Ivory Coast.
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