Seychelles, Japan sign joint survey accord for oil search |18 October 2013

The Seychelles government through PetroSeychelles and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) have signed an agreement for the joint survey programme offshore Seychelles.

This follows a visit to Japan by a PetroSeychelles delegation in December 2012 and several meetings held here during the last few months.

In June this year, President James Michel, who holds the portfolio for hydrocarbons, announced that Seychelles and Japan will be concluding an agreement in the near future for a joint oil exploration programme in the Seychelles exclusive economic zone.

This followed a meeting held in Yokohama, Japan where the President Michel held talks with the president of JOGMEC, Hirobumi Kawano.

Mr Kawano told President Michel that JOGMEC was highly interested in the potential of discovery of oil and gas deposits in the waters of the Seychelles archipelago, and that it had conducted preliminary discussions with PetroSeychelles.

JOGMEC, established in 2004, is an independent administrative agency which replaced the former Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC).

Japan imports most of its oil and natural gas resources and has to ensure a stable supply of these essential commodities. JOGMEC co-operates with the Japanese government to help Japanese oil companies in their acquisition of oil and natural gas exploration and development rights in other countries so as to ensure energy security.

Under the joint survey programme, PetroSeychelles will be working alongside JOGMEC to acquire, process and interpret geophysical, geochemical and geological data.  The entire exercise will take approximately two years after which a Japanese oil company may elect to enter into a petroleum agreement with the government of Seychelles to carry out further exploration and development activities.

All costs associated with the survey will be borne by JOGMEC. PetroSeychelles will be involved in the planning and implementation stages of the survey and will provide existing non-confidential geodata as part of the project. All new data acquired during the survey will be the property of the government of Seychelles.

The government of Seychelles has already issued JOGMEC with an exploration licence for two years to conduct the survey and study with PetroSeychelles.  
The area of 8,426 square kilometres is located offshore, approximately 135km west of Mahe.