Qatar Petroleum buys into offshore blocks in Kenya

Qatar Petroleum has signed agreements with Eni and Total to acquire a 25 per cent stake in three blocks in the frontier areas offshore Kenya.

The concessions in question cover L11A, L11B, and L12 blocks located in the waters offshore eastern Kenya. Qatar Petroleum will acquire 13.75 per cent from Eni, and 11.25 per cent from Total.

Subject to regulatory approvals, the partners comprising the consortium will consist of Eni (the operator) with a 41.25% participating interest, Total with a 33.75% participating interest, and Qatar Petroleum with a 25% participating interest.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: “We are pleased to sign this agreement to participate in exploring these frontier offshore areas in Kenya and to further strengthen our presence in Africa.”

He said: “We hope that the exploration efforts are successful, and we look forward to collaborating with our valuable partners Eni and Total, and the government of Kenya in these blocks. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Kenyan authorities and our partners for their ongoing and continued support.”

According to Qatar Petroleum, the three offshore blocks (L11A, L11B and L12) are situated in what is considered to be a frontier and largely unexplored area in the Lamu basin east of Kenya and have a total area of approximately 15,000 square kilometres, with water depths ranging from about 1000 meters to 3,000 meters.

This is yet another in a series of recent agreements between Eni and Qatar Petroleum. The two companies are already partners in Oman, Mexico, Morocco, and Mozambique.

QP farmed into Eni’s Tarfaya offshore shallow petroleum agreement, comprising 12 exploration blocks offshore Morocco, and into Eni’s Block A5A in the Angoche basin offshore Mozambique in March 2019.

In addition, QP last December entered into an agreement with Eni to acquire a 35% participating interest in three offshore oil fields in Mexico.