Tullow Ghana hopeful of wining oil block in bidding process

Tullow Oil says it is one the best suited companies to explore the 5 oil blocks that were put on offer by government during a bidding process last year.

That’s according to the Managing Director of the company Kweku Awotwi.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on October 15, opened the blocks up for competitive tendering as part of a process aimed at ensuring transparency, value for money and getting companies with the requisite financial and technical expertise to exploit the Ghana’s Oil and Gas resource.

Commenting on Tullow’s chances of being selected ahead of the 15 other companies that applied to explore the 5 oil blocks, Mr. Awotwi said Tullow had a proven track record of successfully producing oil in Ghana.

“As you said Tullow has submitted its bid like all the other oil companies, and we are awaiting the outcome of the decision of the bids committee. We remain optimistic due to our track record, the fact that we are already here and we would probably be the company that could produce oil the fastest because of our existing infrastructure. But we are waiting like everybody else for the results of the bid committee,” Mr. Awotwi said.

The Licensing Round Bid Evaluation and Negotiation (LRBEN) Committee sent out invitations for expression of interest and pre-qualification in October 2018 for five blocks (Blocks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) – three blocks on tender and two for direct negotiation. The first block is reserved for GNPC (Block 1).

Tullow and other prospective bidders submitted their applications by 20th of December, 2018.

According to the Energy Ministry, announcement of pre-qualified applicants and publication of invitation of prequalified applicants to tender will be on the 21st January, 2019 and deadline for the submission of bids will be on 21st May, 2019. The blocks are expected to be awarded to successful bidders in August 2019.

Story so far

Sixty (60) applications were received from sixteen (16) companies.

58 applications were VALID. Out of this 74% (43) were interested in competitive bidding and 26% (15) were for Direct Negotiation
Two (2) other applications for Block 1 were invalidated.

This is because this block has been reserved for the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC). The two companies that have expressed interest in Block 1 may have to hold discussions with GNPC for possible partnership opportunities.

The 16 companies that expressed interest and submitted pre-qualification applications include but not limited to ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, Total, ENI Ghana, Vitol, Kosmos Energy, and Aker Energy among others. Read Full Story