US-based Murphy Oil has signed four production sharing contracts (PSCs) covering approximately 2.6 million acres offshore Cameroon.
The contracts cover the Elombo, Etinde Exploration, Ntem and Tilapia blocks.
Murphy Oil, acting through a subsidiary, will begin with 100% working interest and will serve as operator for all four blocks.
The deals give Cameroon’s National Hydrocarbons Corporation (Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures, SNH) the option to acquire up to a 20% working interest if the projects move to development.
Murphy Oil and SNH intend to jointly assess the exploration potential of the blocks under the new contracts.
The announcement follows SNH’s call for proposals covering nine exploration and production blocks as part of the licensing round that was open until 30 March 2026.
The acreage spans the Rio del Rey (RDR) and Douala/Kribi-Campo (DKC) basins and includes the newly awarded Etinde Exploration, Elombo, Ntem, and Tilapia blocks.
According to SNH, the nine blocks benefitted from proximity to established production sites and contain identified leads and undrilled prospects.
Investors were required to submit technical evaluations, minimum work programmes, budgets, environmental and social plans, and local content proposals.
Minimum exploration requirements included drilling wells, seismic data acquisition, and geoscience studies.
Contractual options offered by SNH included concession, production sharing, and risk service contracts, with different timelines and renewal provisions depending on the block.
Murphy Oil has offshore and onshore assets in various regions, including the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), Canada, Vietnam, and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as North American shale plays.
In June 2026, the company made an oil discovery at the Bubale-1X exploration well in Block CI-709, located about 40 miles offshore Côte d’Ivoire.
The well was spudded in late February 2026 by Murphy CI-709 Oil, a Murphy Oil subsidiary and operator of the offshore concession. Bubale-1X was drilled in 7,795ft of water to a total depth of 20,548ft (6,263m).
“Murphy Oil signs four production sharing contracts in Cameroon” was originally created and published by Offshore Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.
Source: finance.yahoo.com