By Adama Makasuba
Gambia’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum has joined his African counterparts on African oil week which brings African nations and international oil companies, and investors together to discuss pertinent issues on oil issue.
Delivering his key note address on a virtual summit, Honorable Fafa Sanyang told his counterparts that “The Gambia has six offshore blocks [A1 to A6], two onshore blocks and ultra-deep area. The ultra-deep area is yet to be demarcated. However, there are plans to conduct this demarcation in the very near future.”
He explained that: “one of the six offshore blocks – block A1 was licensed to BP Exploration Gambia Limited in 2019 through a transparent and competitive Licencing Round that commenced in 2017. The offshore blocks A2 and A5 are licenced to FAR Gambia Limited and PETRONNAS Gambia limited.”
He informed the summit that The Gambia has entered into a settlement agreement with PETRONNAS Gambia Limited and this has brought an end to three years of arbitration proceedings brought by African Petroleum against the The Gambia.
“The Gambia’s emerging petroleum industry has reached a critical and exciting phase in its development. Consequently, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum with the support of the African Development Bank, through the African Legal support facility [ALSF] have embarked on modernizing the petroleum laws and regulation with a view to attract foreign direct investment in the sector.
Without national interest s with the ALSF support, we have successfully reviewed and revised our 2014 model petroleum licence to the new “model petroleum, exploration, development and production license 2019, aligning it with international best practices,” he said.
He disclosed that his Ministry has presented the Petroleum Commission Bill 2020 to the national assembly for enactment, saying which will establish an autonomous upstream regulatory institution the petroleum commission that will regulate upstream and midstream activities.
