The prompt approval of Baraka Petroleum's farm-out agreement with China's biggest oil and gas company by the new Mauritania Government is being heralded as a signal the small west African nation is keen to encourage foreign investment in its emerging oil sector.
West Perth-based Baraka is one of the first companies to gain an agreement with the new Government, installed after a bloodless coup toppled autocratic President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya at the start of the month.
Baraka managing director Max de Vietri said new minister of energy and petroleum, Mohamed Aly Ould Sidi Mohamed, had approved Baraka's farm-out agreement signed with CNPC International Mauritania, a subsidiary of the overseas venture arm of China National Petroleum Corporation, for the company's 100 per cent owned Block 20 coastal exploration area.
Located in Mauritania's petrolific coastal basin, Block 20 is about 180km south-east of Mauritania's first commercial oil discovery, Chinguetti.
Woodside Petroleum, Hardman Resources and Roc Oil are all active in the country. Among Woodside's extensive Mauritanian interests is its Chinguetti project, where production is due to start in February. Woodside's drilling program was not disrupted by the coup.
Mr de Vietri, who is on his way to Mauritania to meet with the new Government, said the coup might have helped speed up the approvals process.
He said under the previous government he had expected the process would have taken several more months. The Mauritanians were keen to recognise the new opportunities the resources industry offered.
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