Anadarko expects Moz oil contract next week

CAPE TOWN – Anadarko Petroleum Corp. expects to sign a contract with Mozambique next week allowing the independent oil and gas producer to explore in the Rovuma Delta, Anadarko’s chief geologist said yesterday.

“We expect to sign a Mozambique contract for Area 1 next week,” Martin Evans, Anadarko’s vice president of deepwater exploration, said during a presentation to the annual Africa Upstream oil conference in Cape Town. The Texas-based company, which has assets in several other African nations and elsewhere in the world, is among a group of foreign companies exploring for oil and gas in Mozambique.Anadarko earlier this year won the rights to explore in the Rovuma Delta, which covers 60 000 square km in Mozambique’s northern Nampula and Cabo Delgado regions.”This is a proven petroleum system (that is) very unexplored,” Evans said.Mozambique has opened its doors to foreign oil companies in an effort to build up its economy, which was devastated by a civil war that followed independence from Portugal in 1975.Oil exploration activities slowed during the lengthy conflict as foreign investors looked elsewhere in Africa.The return of companies like Anadarko, whose earnings this year have been boosted by high oil prices and acquisitions, has bolstered the Mozambique government’s determination to open up other parts of the economy to foreign investment.Nampa-ReutersThe Texas-based company, which has assets in several other African nations and elsewhere in the world, is among a group of foreign companies exploring for oil and gas in Mozambique.Anadarko earlier this year won the rights to explore in the Rovuma Delta, which covers 60 000 square km in Mozambique’s northern Nampula and Cabo Delgado regions.”This is a proven petroleum system (that is) very unexplored,” Evans said.Mozambique has opened its doors to foreign oil companies in an effort to build up its economy, which was devastated by a civil war that followed independence from Portugal in 1975.Oil exploration activities slowed during the lengthy conflict as foreign investors looked elsewhere in Africa.The return of companies like Anadarko, whose earnings this year have been boosted by high oil prices and acquisitions, has bolstered the Mozambique government’s determination to open up other parts of the economy to foreign investment.Nampa-Reuters