Seychelles Invites Bids for Oil, Gas Assets

After two year moratorium, Seychelles has invited oil and gas companies to bid for exploration blocks.

“We want bona fide explorers to invest in Seychelles and drill wells to test our petroleum potential rather than speculate and sit on an area for their own commercial purposes,” President James Alix Michel, who is also in charge of the hydrocarbons portfolio in government, said in a statement on Monday, Reuters reported.

Seychelles does not have a fixed number of exploration areas, but companies can bid for areas of up to 10 000 square km each out of its 1.3 million square km Exclusive Economic Zone, Reuters said.

Under the new licensing rules, once a company approaches the government on a first-come, first-served basis for an exploration area, rivals will have up to 90 days to submit bids for the same block.

Once the 90-day bidding period expires, the government will select the company depending on the ability to finance the project and exploration, Reuters said citing the regulator PetroSeychelles.

Seychelles operates under concession contracts, whereby the company keeps exclusive rights to develop and produce the petroleum if it is commercial.

Under the new licensing regulation, exploration companies will be required to pay 10 percent of petroleum revenues as a royalty, up from a previous 5 percent, Reuters said.