The Ministry of Energy in the Republic of Ghana will on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, announce the winners for the three oil blocks it earmarked for competitive bidding in the maiden licensing bid rounds.
Negotiations and awarding of the oil blocks are expected to follow after the announcement of the winners.
The West African country, early this year, earmarked about five oil blocks for exploration.
Three of the blocks-2, 3 and 4-were to go through competitive bidding process, while two blocks 5 and 6 were supposed to be direct negotiations.
Block 1 was reserved for the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
The bidding round attracted multinational oil companies such US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, British Petroleum (BP), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Qatar Petroleum and Aker Energy.
The rest were Cairn Energy, Global Petroleum Group, First E&P, Sasol, Equinor and Harmony Oil and Gas Corporation, Tullow Ghana Limited, Total, ENI Ghana, Vitol and Kosmos Energy.
Unfortunately, most of the oil majors pulled out at the last minute.
ENI and Vitol, as well as Tullow Ghana Limited, were the only companies that submitted bids for block 3, with First E&P submitting bid for block 2
