2015 to Present Day – Continued Awards and Revived Exploration:
This is the most exciting period of exploration for the STP-EEZ, initiated by the award of Block 6 to Galp Energia in 2015, an agreement that included a 45% stake for Kosmos Energy, who earlier that year had farmed-in to Equator Explorations Block 12. Kosmos Energy then expanded its block licence footprint in 2017 by farming-in to Block 5, taking over the operatorship from Equator Exploration, followed a year later by their farm-in to Block 11, to take over all licence rights from ERHC. The latter agreement saw Kosmos partner with Galp Energia, with whom they already held a partnership in neighbouring Block 6. In 2018 Kosmos Energy completed its most recent activities by licensing, together with BP, Blocks 10 and 13 before the acquisition of extensive 3D seismic surveys with a focus over the eastern blocks.
Why São Tomé and Príncipe is a Hot Oil and Gas Exploration Area
The PGS MultiClient data library over the region now includes the 2D survey acquired for ExxonMobil in 1999, together with the later 2D seismic, gravity and magnetic surveys acquired by PGS in 2001 and 2005. These three surveys have recently been reprocessed as a coherent dataset to allow seamless interpretation. In addition, the PGS MultiClient library contains the well data from Ubabudo-1 together with the eight exploration wells and one appraisal well drilled in the JDZ waters.
The interpretation of these data along with industry feedback have indicated that there are four key reasons for the recent interest in the area.
