Bissau, Aug. 1, 2024 (Lusa) - Celedónio Vieira, director general of Petroguin, the country's state oil company, told Lusa on Thursday that the Guinean government has terminated two oil exploration licences due to the company that held them for more than two years' non-compliance with contractual commitments.

According to Vieira, the hydrocarbon (oil and gas) prospecting licences for blocks 1, ‘Corvina’, and block 5 B, ‘Bicuda’, have been terminated.

The latter block, according to Celedónio Vieira, is considered by Petroguin to be ‘one of the most promising’ in terms of hydrocarbon potential in the Guinean offshore.

The two licences were held jointly by Petroguin and the multinational Trace Atlantic, said Vieira.

For another two years, Trace Atlantic ‘practically didn't fulfil’ all the commitments it made to Guinea-Bissau when it acquired the two licences, noted Petroguin's general director.

‘The company has not held at least two meetings of the Management Committee each year to approve the work programme and activity budget and has not fulfilled the financial commitments made to Petroguin,’ he explained.

In light of the hydrocarbon law and contractual terms, Petroguin proposed to the government that the two licences be terminated, and the Council of Ministers adopted the decision on 24 July.

Celedónio Vieira noted that the two licences ‘will only be de facto extinguished’ when the Guinean President, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, promulgates the government's decision and publishes it in a decree in the supplement to the Official Bulletin (a kind of Official Gazette).

Petroguin's director general said that the departure of the two companies, with the extinction of their prospecting licences, cannot be seen ‘as something abnormal’.

‘Several companies have already left due to non-compliance, just as several companies have entered,’ he said.

Currently, Vieira added, hydrocarbon exploration activities are taking place in seven blocks in the Guinean offshore.

MB/ADB // ADB.

Lusa