QatarEnergy enters Mauritania offshore exploration with Shell

Reuters//Naseem Zeitoon

State-owned QatarEnergy has entered into an agreement with British oil and gas company Shell to acquire a 40 percent working interest in the C-10 block located offshore Mauritania.

British oil and gas company Shell will hold a 50 percent interest, while national oil company Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures (SMH) will hold the remaining 10 percent.

Saad Al Kaabi, president and CEO of QatarEnergy, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to participate in Mauritania’s upstream sector, which further builds on our exploration footprint in Africa and we look forward to a successful exploration programme.”

The C-10 block covers a total area of approximately 11,500 square km and is located about 50 km off the coast of Mauritania in water depths of roughly 50 to 2,000m.

QatarEnergy recently signed an agreement with US-based ExxonMobil to acquire stakes in two Canadian offshore exploration blocks.

As part of its expansion strategy, QatarEnergy has acquired exploration licenses in several countries including South Africa, Namibia and Cyprus, from global companies.

In January the Lebanese energy ministry reported that QatarEnergy would join TotalEnergies and Eni in a three-way consortium to explore oil and gas in two maritime blocks.

Qatar is the world’s largest LNG supplier and plans to expand output to 126 million tonnes annually by 2027 from 77 million tonnes under the two-phase North Field expansion project.