France's Total wants to explore for oil in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with Britain's Tullow Oil, a company official said, potentially boosting the latter's bid for key blocks there.
"The idea is to partner with Tullow in Congo just as we are in Uganda," Philippe Hergaux, project director for new ventures and asset management at Total, said by telephone from Paris late following a visit to Kinshasa.
Total and Tullow last week agreed a three-way deal with China's CNOOC over Tullow's Uganda oil assets, subject to government approval, to up output from three Ugandan oil blocks on Lake Albert, which straddles Congo and Uganda.
Congo has parcelled its own adjoining oil-rich zone into five blocks along Lake Albert and further south, but several companies have been waiting years for exploration licences to be ratified and some are contested.
"The presence of Total will help solve the situation for the best of the country and we will help the government to settle these issues," said Hergaux. "There is three years of delay compared to what has been done in Uganda."
Tullow has been in the running for Blocks 1 and 2 with partner Heritage Oil, but it is unclear whether this would change under an alternative joint bid with Total.
Among competitors for Congo's blocks is Divine Inspiration Group (DIG), part of a South African consortium that paid $4.5 million in signature bonuses for Blocks 1 and 3.
"Any third party laying claim to Block 1 is misrepresenting the current status," said Andrea Brown, CEO of DIG and director of SacOil, in an email to Reuters. "We have validly executed and legitimate rights and we are confident the DRC government will respect our contracts."
DIG says its consortium, backed by Investec Bank and JSE-listed SacOil Holdings, with South African state oil company PetroSA as its technical partner, is ready to spend $200 million on exploration over three years, pending a presidential decree.
Tullow's deal for Blocks 1 and 2 was cancelled in 2007 after the government said it was signed with an unauthorised deputy minister and that its $500,000 signature bonus could not cover both blocks at once.
In 2009, however, a mining minister who has since been replaced announced Tullow had been given back its concession.
"Tullow signed a contract for Blocks 1 and 2 in 2006, and still awaits the sanction from President Kabila," Tullow spokesman Tim O'Hanlon told Reuters by telephone, declining to comment on the proposed partnership with Total.
Italian oil major Eni could also be in the running for Congo oil assets. The company signed a strategic deal with Congo in August last year, naming northern Kivu and the great lakes, which include Lake Albert and Lake Edward.
Eni, which pulled out of a deal to buy Heritage Oil's assets in Uganda last month, declined to comment.
Congo Oil Minister Celestin Mbuyu, new to the post following a cabinet reshuffle last month, said discussions underway would result in a positive conclusion, but declined to add details.
"Usually we would expect oil majors to come in much later, but it's going to be very expensive so it needs majors with long pockets," Jon Marx, editorial director of African Energy newsletter, told Reuters, citing Lake Albert's remote shores.
Total said Congo stands to benefit from "synergies" should the same team take on both sides of the lake, but detractors said Congo would risk losing out to a monopoly controlled by the Uganda side.
"(President) Kabila knows that however much you do on mining, the real game-changer is oil and I think he's watching it like a hawk and that's why he is taking his time," said Marx.
