QatarEnergy to acquire 40% working interest offshore Mauritania

The government’s initiatives to use gas as the primary engine for economic growth have established Mauritania as a potential global gas hub.

QatarEnergy will purchase a 40% working interest in the C-10 offshore Mauritania block, the company announced following an agreement with Shell.

The Exploration and Production Agreement for the C-10 block will give QatarEnergy a 40% working interest, in accordance with the terms of the contract and subject to Mauritania’s usual approvals.

As the operator, Shell will own a 50% stake, and 10% will be held by Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures (SMH).

The C-10 block is situated 50 kilometres off the coast of Mauritania and has a total area of approximately 11,500 square kilometres. The water depths range from 50 to 2,000 metres.

“We are excited about the opportunity to participate in Mauritania’s upstream sector which further builds on our exploration footprint in Africa, and we look forward to a successful exploration programme,” said the Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, also the President and CEO of QatarEnergy.

Last month, the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania Mohamed Ould Cheikh Mohamed El Ghazouani met the delegation of Qatar Chamber (QC) on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC5). 

He called on the private sector in both countries to enhance joint cooperation in various fields, and urged Qatari businessmen to invest in his country.

Mauritania emerges in the oil industry

With gas projects like the GTA and the BirAllah, Mauritania is positioned to become a hub for the world’s energy supply.

The government’s initiatives to use gas as the primary engine for economic growth and alleviation of poverty, along with earlier gas discoveries, have established Mauritania as a potential global gas hub.

Since the 2014 gas discovery by American company Kosmos Energy, Mauritania has become a new frontier for exploration, with bp, TotalEnergies, and Shell launching activities that have yielded important discoveries and sparked the gas majors’ interest in expanding their investment across the market.

The development of the $4.8 billion Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project, whose first phase will produce up to 2.5 million tonnes (mtpa) of gas per year, is the result of discoveries like the 15 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves made by bp and Kosmos Energy on the maritime border of Mauritania and Senegal.

The project is expected to be game changer for Mauritania’s energy market.