The African Farmout Forum – as part of the pre-conference workshops at African Energy Week: Invest in African Energies 2024 – featured 16 companies presenting competitive farm-in opportunities in Africa’s leading oil and gas hotspots. 

Led by global energy advisory Moyes, oil and gas asset deals platform Farmout Angel, and independent advisor Envoi, the forum serves as the premier platform for deal-making and pitching, enabling NOCs, small to medium-sized independents, and start-up energy companies to highlight their partnership and investment opportunities, while accelerating exploration and accessing project funding. 

PSAs 131, 190 and 206 – Somalia   

Liberty Petroleum Corporation is seeking a farm-in partner for PSAs 131, 190 and 206 offshore Somalia. These licenses contain exceptionally large mapped prospects, with an estimated 56 billion barrels of oil resources. Among these is the Leopard prospect, which alone is estimated to hold about 8 billion barrels of resources, highlighting new oil-prone opportunities offshore Somalia. 

Onshore PSCs – Timor-Leste  

Timor Resources is seeking a strategic investment of $20 million to fund three appraisal wells on two PSCs onshore Timor-Leste in exchange for equity in the project. The company has made three discoveries from its initial onshore wells, and the acreage is recognized as a significant conventional oil and gas play with substantial exploration upside. Timor-Leste offers a competitive fiscal regime, allowing 95% of revenue to be allocated to the operator for cost recovery, along with a 5% revenue royalty and additional benefits. 

Loukos Onshore License – Morocco  

Chariot Transitional Energy presented the Loukos Onshore license area in Northern Morocco, representing a near-term, low-risk and high reward appraisal opportunity. Operator Chariot has identified multiple drill-ready opportunities, which offer long-leads in existing inventory and rig availability in-country, along with competitive fiscal terms and license flexibility. These include the RJB-2 Re-Drill, OBA-1 Discovery Appraisal and Material Exploration opportunities.  

Offshore South West Tano Block – Ghana  

OSWT & EK Operating Company is seeking a partner to earn a significant working interest – and potentially operatorship – in the Offshore South West Tano block in Ghana. The block represents a multi-target, low-risk exploration well with tie-back or standalone development options, and lies between the Jubilee and TEN field developments and directly north of the Pecan field. Block prospectivity totals over two billion barrels in place spread across four prospects with a mix of exploration and appraisal targets. The first prospect set to be drilled – Edinam-1X – is scheduled for Q3 2025.  

OPL 332 – Nigeria  

Dajo Energy is seeking a co-developer to develop the Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 322 asset into production. Located offshore Nigeria, OPL 322 contains two major structures – Bobo and Aga thrust – with the Bobo field containing recoverable resources of 277 million barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas. The Aga thrust is undrilled, but estimated to contain 885 million barrels and 2.5 TCF. The farm-in opportunity offers significant potential upside, with substantial gas resources with high commercialization potential, a possible five-year royalty holiday, and additional incentives under Nigeria’s new oil and gas fiscal and regulatory framework.  

Blocks 53, 53, 55, 71, 72 and 73 – Sierra Leone  

FA OIL is exploring partnerships for blocks 53, 53, 55, 71, 72 and 73, awarded under Sierra Leone’s fifth licensing round. The acreage spans more than 8,000 km², containing 14+ leads in water depths up to 4,000 m. Six out of 11 wells drilled have oil or gas shows or are discoveries. GeoPartners, in partnership with the Petroleum Directorate of Sierra Leone, are planning a new multi-client 3D seismic acquisition over the FA OIL acreage to help mature the leads identified on existing 2D seismic into drillable prospects. The campaign is set to begin July 2025.  

EG-18 and EG-31 – Equatorial Guinea   

Africa Oil Corp. is seeking to farm out interests in blocks EG-18 and EG-31, located offshore Equatorial Guinea. EG-18, positioned in a frontier exploration area within an emerging basin, includes the Jasper prospect – a "giant" target with multi-billion-barrel potential and proven play elements. In contrast, EG-31 offers an infrastructure-led, shallow water exploration opportunity in a mature basin, situated near the Alba field and Punta Europa LNG terminal. This low-risk, proven gas province boasts multi-TCF potential, comprehensive 3D seismic coverage and hosts the Massif and Whistler prospects. 

Deepwater Orange Basin – Namibia  

Namibia has attracted a wealth of major operators, resulting in substantial exploration and appraisal activity in 2023 and 2024. Following world-class hydrocarbon discoveries in 2022 by Shell and TotalEnergies, operators including Galp, Chevron and Woodside Energy have taken strategic positions in adjacent blocks, while non-operating partners such as QatarEnergy, Impact Oil & Gas, Africa Oil Corp. and Sintana Energy have made significant investments in the basin, creating additional farm-in opportunities. 

Marginal Field Development Program – Nigeria  

Decklar Resources and Millennium Oil and Gas Company are in discussions with potential investors and farm-in partners for the Oza field, located in the northern section of OML 22 onshore Nigeria. The license encompasses over 30 discovered oil fields, including producing fields operated by Shell, and benefits from well-established infrastructure with export pipeline access to the Trans Niger Pipeline, linking to the Bonny Offshore Terminal. Three wells previously drilled by Shell in the Oza field have collectively produced over one million barrels. 

Matanda Block – Cameroon  

Gaz du Cameroun (GDC) presented the Matanda block in Cameroon, an onshore gas farm-in opportunity with an established local market and fast-track monetization potential. The Matanda exploration block, located in the Douala Basin near the onshore Logbaba field, is recognized as a proven and active hydrocarbon system. Currently, GDC produces gas and condensate from the Logbaba field, transporting it via pipeline to industrial clients, including Dangote Cement. GDC is seeking an industry partner and is open to farming out up to a 37.5% interest in the PSC. 

Blocks 5 and 12 – São Tomé and Príncipe 

Oando Energy Resources is seeking a partner to advance its exploration commitments on Blocks 5 and 12 in the Exclusive Economic Zone of São Tomé and Príncipe. The country has seen recent licensing activity from Shell, Petrobras, TotalEnergies, Kosmos Energy and Galp. In phase one of its Block 12 work program, Oando has already completed 2,000 km² of 3D seismic and is now progressing into phase two, with plans to drill an exploration well in Q2 2025. 

Block KON6 – Angola  

Grupo Simples presented Block KON6, an onshore exploration opportunity in Angola’s Kwanza Basin. Spanning 1,042 km², KON6 is estimated to hold 382 million barrels of unrisked resources. Five wells have previously been drilled, with six leads evaluated in the first phase. Grupo Simples is targeting three primary leads – 1N, 1S, and 2 – and plans to launch additional seismic acquisition in January 2025, followed by the spudding of the first well in August 2025. The company seeks a partner to accelerate exploration and production activities, as well as diversify its risk.   

Licensing Opportunities – Democratic Republic of the Congo  

The Ministry of Hydrocarbons of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has entered into direct negotiations on all of its acreage. This includes the Cuvette Central Basin, with four drilled wells and proven source rocks; the Lake Albert Graben, featuring multi-BCF discoveries in Uganda with an undrilled DRC side; Lake Tanganyika, supported by existing 2D seismic data; and the Coastal Basin, aligned with the Cabinda fields' trend. In the Lake Albert acreage, the Ministry plans to reprocess existing data, acquire new 3D seismic on selected structures, and launch a restricted call for tenders in June 2025. 

Carbon Limits Nigeria  

Carbon Limits Nigeria (CLN) is seeking new upstream partners for emission reduction projects; investors targeting emission reduction projects to gain carbon credit exposure; and/or buyers of carbon credits generated from projects. Pan-African in focus, CLN provides solutions on clean energy utilization, climate change mitigation and carbon assessment of projects. The company currently has projects in Algeria, Egypt and Nigeria, where it is leading flare projects in OMLs 98, 56, 53 and 24.  

License SL2020A – Sierra Leone  

Innoson Oil and Gas is offering a significant equity position in exploration license SL2020A, located in deepwater acreage offshore Sierra Leone with existing discoveries. This area is underexplored and has geological similarities to the conjugate margin of Guyana. Innoson recently secured a four-year license extension and is seeking a farm-in partner to assist with 3D seismic interpretation to assess prospectivity and facilitate a drill-or-drop decision by March 2028. To date, five large leads have been mapped using 2D data, bringing the total to 16 leads, along with two wildcat wells drilled and three major discoveries: Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. 

Diender Permit – Senegal 

Africa Fortesa Corporation is seeking to farm out part of its interest in the Diender PSA Permit onshore Senegal, which boasts a scalable production base with significant transformational upside. This permit is part of the same play as the Sangomar field and has multiple TCF of recoverable gas potential, along with low exploration and production cost thresholds and strong local gas market demand. The planned work program includes drilling the Gadiaga field development well, followed by a three-well drilling program at NBW-1, AT-1PM and AT-2, as well as four appraisal wells. Africa Fortesa is looking for future funding for appraisal wells, field development and infrastructure partnerships for midstream and virtual pipelines.