The Liberian Government and the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) have launched its latest Liberia Basin Bid Round.
The round opened 5 August for three months to 31 October 2014. It comprises four undrilled offshore petroleum exploration blocks - LB-6, LB-7, LB-16 and LB-17L.
Image: Liberia's offshore blocks, from TGS.
Blocks LB-6 and LB-7 were part of the Liberia Basin 2007/8 bid round. No production sharing contracts for those bid rounds became effective, and in 2013 NOCAL terminated discussions with the designated bidder and declared those blocks to be available for a subsequent bid round. Blocks LB-16 and LB-17 were awarded in the Liberia Basin 2004 Bid Round, and are again available for bid.
According to NOCAL, there are a total 13 wells drilled offshore Liberia, seven of which were drilled in the early 1970s and 1980s with predominantly oil shows.
Under the current exploration phase, to date there have been three deepwater hydrocarbon discoveries in Liberia.
The Montserrado-1 well, in 2011, found light oil in Late Cretaceous reservoir sands. In 2012, the Narina-1 well encountered light oil pay in Turonian and Albian reservoirs. The Bee Eater-1 well, in 2013, found oil -earing sands in Cenomanian and Albian reservoirs.
"These three recent discoveries have proven a full working petroleum system in the Liberia Basin and this is shown to continue along trend beyond Block 17 with the Mercury discovery in Sierra Leone," says NOCAL.
Olso-based geophysical firm TGS says it is supporting the government in the round. TGS has comprehensive, high quality, data coverage constituting 2D in Blocks LB-6, LB-7 and 2D/3D in Blocks LB-16 and LB-17.
