The Mozambican government has approved the terms of five oil research and production concession contracts with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) for offshore blocks in the Southern African country, according to reports.

The agreement covers two shallow-water blocks in the Save offshore area (S6-A and S6-B) and three deep-water blocks in the Angoche offshore area (A6-D, A6-E and A6-G). The blocks were awarded as part of the sixth licensing round launched by the mineral resources and energy ministry.

CNOOC will hold 70 to 80 percent stakes in each block, in partnership with the Mozambican state-owned Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos.

The sixth licensing round, launched in November 2021, included a total of 16 blocks in four regions – the Zambezi Delta and offshore basins of Rovuma, Angoche and Save – totalling more than 92,000 square kilometres.

CNOOC received all of the blocks for which it submitted proposals in November 2022, securing both available blocks in the Save area, off the southern province of Inhambane, a shallow-water area with no active offshore development.

The three deep-water Angoche blocks awarded to CNOOC comprise most of the southern half of the blocks in the basin, bordered to the north by blocks awarded to ExxonMobil in 2018. Both Save and Angoche are well south of the troubled Cabo Delgado region, where offshore oil and gas activities have faced years’ long delays due to Islamist terror threats.

Mozambique’s regulatory body, Instituto Nacional de Petróleo, said that exploration activities include acquiring over 26,000 square kilometres of seismic data, drilling at least four deep-water research wells, and geoscientific studies in both the Save and Angoche offshore regions.