Sierra Leone will launch an upstream licensing round by October, as part of efforts to start producing crude within two to three years.
The west African country is "on the cusp of producing", according to upstream regulator PDSL's director general Foday Mansaray, with the government putting measures in place to make offshore investments attractive.
"Once all the de-risking of the basin happens, we'll be in a position to launch a licensing round," Mansaray said at the Invest in African Energy Forum in Paris.
Sierra Leone's most recent licensing round, held in 2023, resulted in six blocks awarded to FA Oil, which is part of a Nigerian conglomerate that owns a non-operated stake in Nigeria's Agbami oil block.
PDSL has approached BP and Chevron, separately, in the past five months to gauge their interest in negotiating for oil blocks directly, offering a 10pc royalty rate, 25pc company income tax rate, a petroleum tax that applies only when realised crude prices are above $60/bl and several other fiscal terms.
But Sierra Leonean acreage is lightly explored, with only eight wells drilled since exploratory work started in the 1980s. A spate of exploration activity between 2003–13 resulted in the Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and Savannah discoveries, but none proceeded to commercial development.
"We are hoping this time next year that we can announce Sierra Leone will be drilling its first well since 2012," Mansaray said.
PDSL previously told Argus it has 140,000km² of offshore open acreage available with 50,000km² of that categorised as "best prospective" and 15,000km² as "highly prospective". The country is likely to offer 55,000km² in this year's licensing round.
