afrol News, 25 February - The government of Gabon and the Canadian company DiamondWorks announce the signing of a production sharing contract pertaining to the East Orovinyare production licence, just offshore the Gabonese coast. According to the company, East Orovinyare represents a big "exploration potential at a low entry cost."

The 105 square kilometres production licence contains the East Orovinyare field discovery and a number of other significant prospects. The East Orovinyare field was discovered by Marathon Oil in 1997 and lays under 19 metres of water offshore Gabon.

DiamondWorks in a statement today said the Montreal-based company had "started talks with potential contractors and financiers with a view to a fast-track development of the field with limited funding required from DiamondWorks." The company gained the production sharing contract through its 51 percent owned and controlled subsidiary, Gulfofguinea Petroleum Corporation.

Alain Mizelle, President and CEO of Gulfofguinea, commented that the production sharing contract at East Orovinyare was "intended to give Gulfofguinea access to oil reserves and upside exploration potential at a low entry cost." He added that the execution of the contract was to mark "the beginning of an aggressive programme through which Gulfofguinea intends to acquire low-risk high materiality development and exploration assets in West Africa."

DiamondWorks and its subsidiary Gulfofguinea already concentrate their investments in Africa. The Canadian company is active in mining and mineral and oil exploration in Sierra Leone, Angola, Central African Republic, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Congo Brazzaville, Congo Kinshasa, Nigeria and São Tomé.

Brian Menell, Chairman of DiamondWorks, in a statement today said that the new contract in Gabon was to be seen as "the threshold of the build up of a West African upstream oil and gas portfolio, which was the reason DiamondWorks recently bought a controlling interest in Gulfofguinea [in July 2003]." He also announced "further acquisitions in West Africa" to be made in a near future by Gulfofguinea.

Only last week, a DiamondWorks press release announced that one of its subsidiaries, Energem, had signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of São Tomé and Príncipe, giving it rights to trade crude oil to be supplied by Nigeria. Energem is positioning itself for the future oil production in São Tomé, foreseen to start in 2007.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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