Eni announced Wednesday it has gained rights to explore and develop three deepwater offshore blocks offshore Mozambique.
Through a farm-in agreement, signed with ExxonMobil Moçambique Exploration & Production Limitada and authorized by Mozambican institutions, Eni Mozambico acquired a 10% stake in A5-B, Z5-C and Z5-D, located in the Angoche and Zambezi Basins.
Block A5-B is located about 1,300 kilometers northeast of the capital Maputo, in a completely unexplored area off the city of Angoche. It has an area of 6,080 square kilometers, at a water depth of between 1,800 and 2,500 meters.
Blocks Z5-C and Z5-D cover a total area of 10,205 square kilometers, at a water depth between 500 and 2,100 meters, in a scarcely explored area facing the delta of the Zambezi River, about 800 kilometers to the north-east of the capital Maputo.
The three blocks, assigned under the 5th Licensing Round, are operated by ExxonMobil (40%), in partnership with the Mozambican State company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH, 20%), Rosneft (20%) and Qatar Petroleum (10%).
In the 5th Licensing Round, Eni Mozambico was also awarded operatorship of Block A5-A, adjacent to block A5-B, with a 59.5% stake. Other partners are Sasol (25.5%) and ENH (15%). A farm-out agreement enabling Qatar Petroleum to acquire a 25.5% participating interest in Block A5-A, reducing Eni shares to 34%, is pending authorization by the Mozambican authorities.
Eni has been present in Mozambique since 2006, with the acquisition of a stake in the Area 4, located offshore in the Rovuma basin, in the northern part of the country. From 2011 to 2014, Eni discovered supergiant natural gas resources in the Rovuma basin, in Coral, Mamba and Agulha fields, holding estimated 2,400 billion cubic meters of gas in place.