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By Helen Reid
CAPE TOWN, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Senegal has delayed the launch
of an oil and gas licensing round due on Wednesday until Nov. 4
as contract documents still need to be finalised, oil minister
Mahamadou Makhtar Cisse said.
"We need to ensure the legal framework for investors," he
told Reuters on the sidelines of an oil and power conference in
Cape Town.
Senegal's ambitions to become a major oil and gas producer
have been overshadowed by allegations President Macky Sall's
brother was involved in fraud related to two offshore gas blocks
being developed by BP.
Asked whether the scandal had dented investor appetite,
Cisse told Reuters "We have not measured a negative impact."
Prosecutors in Senegal launched an inquiry in June, and the
president's brother Aliou Sall resigned from his government post
following the allegations reported by the BBC.
Senegal, where oil was discovered in 1961, expects all its
offshore projects to come online between 2022 and 2026, the
minister said.
According to the International Monetary Fund, between 2014
and 2017, oil and gas reserves worth more than 1 billion barrels
of oil and 40 trillion cubic feet of gas, most of it shared with
Mauritania, were found.
"Discoveries are important but will not lead to a major
transformation of the economy, with hydrocarbons expected to
make up not more than 5 percent of GDP," the IMF said in a
January country report.
The new licensing round will be open for six months and will
seek developers for ten to twelve offshore fields, Mamadou Faye,
managing director of national oil company Petrosen told Reuters.
The IMF forecasts growth of around 6.9 percent in 2019 for
Senegal before this rises to 11.6 percent in 2022 when first oil
is expected to flow.
Kosmos Energy, a U.S.-listed oil and gas exploration
company, said last month the results of its appraisal drilling
offshore Senegal were good enough to consider a second liquefied
natural gas (LNG) export plant in the country.
(additional reporting by Wendell Roelf, editing by Louise
Heavens and David Evans)
