DRC Blocks I and II marketing process

Introduction to Blocks I and II

The Ministry of Hydrocarbons of the Democratic Republic of Congo has issued the procedure to assign the oil exploration rights of 30 oil and gas Blocks, amongst which there are Blocks I and II situated in the Albertine Graben, to qualified entities through a Tender Process that has been launched at the end of July 2022.

The Blocks consist of both onshore and offshore parts with maximum water depths of approx. 55 m.

Regional exploration activity

The Blocks lie within the Albertine Rift where 1.1 Billion bbls of oil is already discovered (Uganda side) and is currently under development. The Ugandan part of the Graben has been thoroughly explored in the last 20 years with huge amount of seismic and over 80 exploration wells at 90% success rate
Clearinvest Holding Limited - DRC Blocks
Clearinvest Holding Limited - DRC Blocks

Geological Background

The Albert Graben is part of the Western branch of the East African Rift System. It stretches from the border between Uganda and Sudan in the north, to Lake Edward in the south. Rifting is interpreted to have started during Early Miocene approx. 17 million years ago.

Geological and geophysical data indicate that the Graben has gone through extension and compression episodes resulting into a variety of structures. Deformation and prevalence of flower structures in the shallow sedimentary section in some basins in the Graben indicate that the neo-tectonic processes are compressional. The Graben is characterized by highly asymmetrical deep tertiary basins that are separated by complex transfer zones

2D seismic in the Blocks

In total 900 km of 2D seismic onshore, offshore (OBC) and Transition Zone have been so far acquired. The seismic covered approx. 50% of the sedimentary area (blue and green areas in the map) identifying 7 Prospects and 13 Leads targeting Mio-Pliocene and Early Miocene sequences.

The overall quality of the seismic data is good, with high frequency content which gave a better definition of the key areas. The TZ between land and marine lines maintains a good quality allowing a reliable interpretation of the signals and basement identification.

The outcomes of the activities performed so far and all the relevant report and studies will be available to interested parties through a Virtual Data Room.

Clearinvest Holding Limited - DRC Blocks

The process

The MoH appointed Clearinvest Holding Ltd as consultant to provide assistance during the process of Blocks assignment, from the  shortlisting of interested parties to the set-up and supervision of virtual and physical datarooms and assistance during the negotiation of the PSC between DRC and the new Contractor.

Interested parties may express their interest to MoH through the dedicated website so that the references provided in the context of the tender process could be evaluated. The process then will be as follows:

  • Interested Companies participating to the tender process will provide MoH with all the information required in the first evaluation phases, namely: experience in similar project in the last ten years, financial statements, detail on companies’ location, etc. 
  • Upon successful analysis of the data provided, Companies can participate to dataroom upon payment of a fee.
  • MoH will then invite Companies having demonstrated their capabilities and interest to formulate a technical and commercial proposal which will constitute the basis for the PSC negotiation.