Oil: Gabon grants Norwegian firm TGS ten years of exclusive rights to its deep-water data
Gabon has awarded Norwegian company TGS a ten-year contract for the exploration of its deep and ultra-deep waters. The agreement was signed on September 29 and 30, 2026, in London, on the sidelines of the World Energies Summit, by Minister of Petroleum Clotaire Kondja and TGS CEO Kristian Johansen, reports Gabonreview.
The contract covers what both parties call the complete data life cycle: marketing of previously acquired seismic data, reprocessing of these archives, and the acquisition of new data. It grants TGS exclusive rights over the majority of the country's deep-water zone, according to Gabonreview. No financial figures were made public.
Attracting majors to an underexplored offshore
Libreville's stated objective is to improve knowledge of the subsoil and make deep-water blocks more attractive to international oil companies. The promoters of the agreement cite past discoveries at Diaman and Leopard to illustrate the zone's potential. TGS has been working in Gabon for over twenty years; this contract therefore extends a long-standing collaboration rather than initiating a new one.
Data as a sovereign asset
The operation highlights an issue rarely discussed: in the oil industry, whoever holds and sells seismic data holds a share of the bargaining power. Acquisition campaigns are expensive, and African producer states frequently entrust this function to specialized foreign service providers, who then resell access to the data to bidding companies. A ten-year contract with exclusivity over most of the deep-water domain therefore commits Gabon for a decade, at a time when the country is seeking to revive declining oil production.
Furthermore, Gabon has launched tenders in recent years for several dozen blocks, supported by 2D and 3D seismic data. The question of what share of the value generated by this data returns to the Gabonese state, and under what terms, was not publicly specified in communications regarding the agreement.
Libreville says it wants to centralize access to the mapping of its subsoil and offer more clarity to international investors, reports Gabon Media Time. Gabonese exploration has historically focused on shallow waters; the deep basins remain largely unexplored.
This article was written in French with the help of artificial intelligence from the sources cited below, then translated from French automatically. Read the original.
