The National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) and the Liberian government have announced the auction of four offshore petroleum blocks in the latest Liberia Basin Bid Round
The auction is open until 31 October 2014 and covers four blocks – LB-6, LB-7, LB-16 and LB-17.
Blocks LB-6 and LB-7 were originally part of the Liberia Basin Bid Round in 2007 and blocks LB-16 and LB-17 were awarded in the Liberia Basin Bid Round in 2004.
Oslo-based firm TGS will support NOCAL and the Liberian government by providing multi-client geoscience data support, constituting 2D in blocks LB-6, LB-7 and 2D/3D in blocks LB-16 and LB-17, according to the company website.
According to NOCAL, 13 wells were drilled offshore Liberia, seven of which were in the early 1970s and 1980s. Under the current exploration phase, three deepwater hydrocarbon discoveries have been made in the West African nation.
In addition, the Montserrado-1 well found light oil in Late Cretaceous reservoir sands in 2011. The Narina-1 well encountered light oil pay in Turonian and Albian reservoirs in 2012 and the Bee Eater-1 well found oil-bearing sands in Cenomanian and Albian reservoirs in 2013.
”These recent discoveries have proven a full working petroleum system in the Liberia Basin and this is shown to continue along trend beyond Block 17 with the Mercury discovery in Sierra Leone,” stated a NOCAL official.
