In a press release made public this Monday, October 14, the Congolese Ministry of Hydrocarbons announces the cancellation of the process of awarding 27 oil blocks which had been launched in July 2022 and details the reasons which pushed it to make such a decision.
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Absence of applications, non-responsive offers, late submissions, inappropriate or irregular offers, lack of competition: in the press release published Monday October 14 by the Minister of Hydrocarbons, Aimé Sakombi Molendo, the reasons given to justify the cancellation of the call There are multiple offers for the allocation of 27 Congolese oil blocks. They ” prevents[ent aussi] the pursuit of the procedure » launched in 2022underlines this one.
Due to a lack of candidates, the auction of these blocks had already been extended to March 2023. To explain the lack of interest they arouse, experts suggest, firstly, a lack of confidence in the Congolese context in general, but also in the data concerning them. They are considered insufficient.
“ The Congolese government has an extremely bad reputation in the business world. There have been far too many investors who have been scolded by successive Congolese governments to embark on such operations, deciphers Thierry Vircoulon, associate researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Iris) and specialist in the region. It should also be remembered that the placing on the market of these oil blocks by the government of Felix Tshisekedi has, in fact, already been done for the first time in 2010 by the government of Joseph Kabila. And at the time, things didn’t go very well for those who took the bait! »
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“ The blocks which are on the Central Basin are located in a very fragile and partly protected environment”
Some of these oil blocks are also located in the Albertine Graben, a border area ofUganda deemed unstable in terms of security, while others are located in very isolated regions, so much so that the export of the oil extracted from their subsoil would require large investments in infrastructure.
Finally, still others are located in the Central Basin, an area of very sensitive forests and peatlands. Here, environmental considerations and a possible standoff with NGOs and civil society could therefore play an additional role in investor hesitation. “ The blocks on the Cuvette are located in the middle of the tropical forest, the second largest in the world. This is a very, very fragile and partly protected environment », further confirms Thierry Vircoulon.
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So many obstacles which, however, do not seem to discourage the Congolese authorities: in his press release, the Minister of Hydrocarbons actually announced his intention to relaunch “ the same procedure » shortly… Only the three gas blocks which also covered the call for tenders found buyers.