Mozambique has closed the pre-qualification section of its sixth bidding round with 13 companies submitting documents.
The deadline for the pre-qualification documents was March 25.
Instituto Nacional de Petroleo (INP) named the companies. Bidders include Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production, CNOOC Ltd, Discover Exploration, Eni Mozambico, ExxonMobil Mozambique (Offshore 6), Novatek, Petro China International Iraq, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), Qatar Petroleum Mozambique, RN Angoche, Sasol Africa, Sinopec International Energy Investment and TotalEnergies EP New Venture.
The INP said it would evaluate the documents from the 13 companies. Those that meet the requirements will move into the next phase.
INP said it would publish the list of selected companies on March 31, on its website and the official licence round site.
INP will close the bidding phase on August 31. It will announce the results on November 30.
The companies are bidding for 16 areas. In the next stage, INP will give bidders a physical and virtual dataroom.
INP named two Russian companies, Novatek and Rosneft’s RN Angoche, as competing. Rosneft has three exploration licences in Mozambique with ExxonMobil. It may be challenging for the Russian companies to team up with Western companies in the current licence round.
Mozambique was one of the 35 countries that abstained from voting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on March 2. The United Nations vote saw a number of African states abstain. Mozambique has longstanding ties with Russia, with Rosneft – through RN Angoche – already participating in the East African state’s upstream.
The Wagner Group was fighting in northern Mozambique against Islamist insurgents.
Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi has called for the conflict in Ukraine to be resolved through dialogue.