OREANDA-NEWS. Eni and the Congolese state company Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo (SNPC),will jointly explore the hydrocarbon potential of the Ngolo block, which is part of the Cuvette Basin. The block is located approximately 350 kilometers north east from the capital Brazzaville and covers an area of over 16 thousand square kilometers.

Eni, through its company Eni Congo, will participate, as Operator, in the joint venture with SNPC for the exploration of the block. Last 19 July, the Republic of Congo's Ministry of Hydrocarbons assigned the Ngolo exploration license to SNPC.

Exploration activities will take place over a period of 10 years and they will target the Mesozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary geological sequences.

Eni and SNPC will share their extensive operational experience, which both parties have successfully developed in onshore and offshore Congo. Exploration activities on Ngolo, which will begin in the next few months, will be carried out using the most sophisticated prospecting techniques including “remote sensing” and geophysical surveys.

The Cuvette Basin, so far little explored, is one of the new themes of frontier exploration in Africa. With this initiative, Eni and SNPC further strengthen their partnership and confirm their roles as main players in the research and evaluation of the new hydrocarbon potential of the region.

Eni has been present in Republic of Congo since 1968 and today has an equity production of 110,000 barrels of oil per day in the country. Eni has been present in Sub-Saharan Africa since the 1960s and currently participates in exploration and production projects in Angola, Congo, Ghana, Gabon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Kenya and Liberia.