Senegal to resize oil blocks to meet international standards

May 24, 2026 News

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– while Guyana allows companies to control massive oil fields

(Kaieteur News) – Senegal, as part of the renegotiation of its oil and gas contracts, is actively pursuing the resizing of its oil fields into blocks that meet the international standards.

According to an article carried by sceneweb.com on Saturday May 9, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said, “We are also discussing the resizing of the blocks. I said it when we were in opposition, the perimeters were too vast and too large. This does not conform to international standards.”

The government argued that the previous perimeters were expansive and primarily encouraged speculation rather than active development. Senegal has also targeted specific assets for greater state control, including moving to nationalize the Kosmos-run Yakaar-Teranga gas project.

The 2018 Comparative Analysis of the Federal Oil and Gas Fiscal Systems: Offshore Frontiers Report by IHS Markit, study said that block sizes in frontier areas tend to be larger than in established off shore regions. However, as there is more information being obtained through seismic surveys, governments often tend to reduce the size of the blocks offered.

“Governments often correct for large block offerings through intermittent relinquishment obligations that allow relicensing of the relinquished areas and ensure continued investment in exploration of the acreage. The frontier offshore license areas widely vary among the jurisdictions reviewed—with the Falkland Islands and South Africa on one end of the spectrum, offering licenses with average acreage sizes greater than 10,000 square kilometers (km2) and the United States on the other end of the spectrum with block sizes of 23.3 km2. The smaller block sizes, combined with the cash bonus bidding, could be disadvantageous for U.S. frontier offshore exploration,” the report said.

In contrast, the government of Guyana is allowing oil companies to hold on to massive chunks of Guyana’s oil fields known as the Stabroek Block which measures a whopping 26,800 square kilometers or 6.6 million acres. The Kaieteur Block, which measures 3.3 million acres, is roughly 13,500 square kilometers, and the Canje Block which measures approximately 1.2 million acres, is approximately 4,800 square kilometers.

According to the 1986 Petroleum Act: regulation 13(2), the maximum amount for a single licence in Guyana granted to an oil company should be 60 graticular blocks. According to the Transparency Institute Guyana a graticular block in Guyana’s case measures 84.55 square km each. Therefore, sixty of these would be 5,073 sq km.

It is important to note that what Exxon and its partners control under the licence granted to them for the Stabroek Block, far exceeds the legal limit per licence, with the original size before the relinquishment being approximately 600 blocks, which translates to 10 times what should be under a license.

In September 2017, Kaieteur News reported that the discrepancy was unearthed by Chartered Accountant, Chris Ram. He noted that on June 14, 1999, a Petroleum Agreement and Prospecting Licence was signed by former President Janet Jagan granting approximately 600 blocks.

Ram noted that this was an obvious error by the then Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government.

He said, “In the first place, Janet Jagan granted the company a Prospecting Licence over approximately six hundred blocks when the law sets a limit of 60 blocks, except where special reasons exist for a larger number.”

The Chartered Accountant stressed that it would not be easy to justify an excess of nine times. He also stated that those who granted such an excess should be called upon to explain to the nation what were the special circumstances under which it was granted.

In spite of several calls made to the government to amend this error, it has remained unmoved on the issue. This publication reported in June 2019 that while in Opposition, now Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, said that the relinquishment provision, as it is referred to in the PSA, was supposed to kick in when Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman revised the terms in 2016 with ExxonMobil.

While the PPP/C is able to provide some form of explanation why Exxon was granted the excess blocks, Jagdeo said that Trotman has no justification for his actions. In fact, the then Opposition Leader argued that Trotman essentially weakened the relinquishment provisions of the contract.

“This government weakened the relinquishment provision so it means they (Exxon) can explore and find and sit on the blocks for a long time. That is one of my concerns about the agreement,” the PPP/C General Secretary concluded on the matter.

However, since returning to office, the PPP/C administration has shown little concern over the size of the offshore concessions and has repeatedly defended the oil companies and the agreements governing the sector.

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• Offshore Frontiers, Oil blocks, oil fields, Senegal

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