Zenith Energy announced it has submitted a commercial and technical offer to the Ministry of Hydrocarbons of the Republic of Congo requesting for 25-years license extension for the Tilapia oil field, to be named Tilapia II.

The license on the Tilapia field expired on Saturday, 18th July 2020. The oil company’s subsidiary in the country, Anglo African Oil & gas Congo (AAOG Congo) has continued to run the operations of the field on an interim basis pending a response from the Ministry to Zenith’s request. The relevant authorities and Zenith Energy both agreed on the interim management to ensure activities are not paused after the license expiration.

The company hopes to receive a preliminary indication showing acceptance of the offer within the next 30 days.

The Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Energy, Andrea Cattaneo said, “We are very excited about the good progress we have achieved in recent weeks in the Republic of the Congo, specifically in respect of the submission of the Offer for Tilapia II.”

“As is to be expected, the unprecedented world crisis presented by COVID-19 has delayed all activities, including the arranging of meetings to conduct the necessary negotiations prior to submitting the Offer. The Tilapia asset has transformational production potential, and the award of a new 25-year license will represent the first important successful milestone in our journey in the Congo. It is our hope and expectation that we shall achieve this goal in due course.”

“I am also pleased to confirm that negotiations are nearing a conclusion with regards to defining a payment plan for the repayment of the US$5.3 million debt owed by Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo to AAOG Congo.”

In 2018, the APPO Member Country was the fourth-largest sub-Saharan oil producer, with a 323,000 barrels per day (bpd) output. Also, in 2018, the oil reserves amounted to 2.9 billion barrels with a reserves-to-production ratio of 15.8%.