Tanzania will open its fourth bidding round for deep offshore drilling in April 2011, making areas in the Indian Ocean available for oil and gas exploration Bloomberg has reported.
The round will include 13 blocks with depths of 1,200 to 3,000 metres (4,000 to 10,000 feet), the state-owned Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation said in a statement distributed at a conference in Cape Town, South Africa. An onshore bidding round will also “be launched during the last quarter of 2010,” the document said.
The east African country is largely unexplored, with 35 exploratory wells having been drilled in an area of 280,000 square kilometres, according to the Tanzanian company’s website.
Tanzania has been intermittently explored over the last 50 years with significant gas discoveries being made at Songo Songo, an island 15km off the Tanzanian mainland and Mnazi Bay near the Mozambiquean border to the south of the country. Tullow Oil Plc, Statoil ASA and Ophir Energy Co. are among energy companies in the country, according to the statement.
