Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe, 29 Jan – The auction for oil blocks in the exclusive economic area of Sao Tome and Principe has been scheduled for the last quarter of 20009, a source from the National Oil Agency (ANP) said Tuesday.

The source, who did not wish to be named, told Portuguese news agency Lusa that the ANP was working towards everything happening throughout this years, provided there were no political crises along the way.

Seismic surveys carried out by Norwegian company PGS, which were recently made public, point to the existence of structures that may contain hydrocarbons in Sao Tome’s exclusive economic area.

“We are certain that there is oil and we expect to find a commercially viable quantity,” said the ANP source.

In the joint Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe development area wells are due to be drilled this year in blocks 2 and 4 by Swiss-Canadian company Addax and China’s Sinopec.

So far in the joint development area no commercially viable amount of oil has yet been found, according to the only well drilled so far, two years ago, by US company Chevron Texaco, in block 1. (macauhub)