The round will be open for five months starting on Oct. 27 and bids can be submitted from Feb. 15, 2016, onwards and by no later than March 31, 2016. Prequalification for the bid round will require the purchase of a minimum amount of seismic data.

The deep water of Gabon has significant unexplored potential within a structurally complex setting, particularly in the pre-salt section. In response to the exploration challenges, CGG has been appointed to advise the Gabonese Republic on the promotion of the 11th Licensing Round and has worked directly with the Ministry to acquire over 25,000 sq km of new 3D BroadSeis multi-client seismic data as part of an integrated geoscience program to support it.

The new survey will enable better imaging of this exciting and underexplored area, and covers areas downdip and adjacent to recent pre-Aptian salt discoveries, such as Leopard, Diaman, Ruche and Tortue. It will benefit from integrated gravity and magnetic interpretation to enhance the pre-salt imaging and additional, complementary datasets including offshore hydrocarbon seeps and a full geological prospectivity report will be available.

Jean-Georges Malcor, CEO, CGG, said, “Ever since we acquired our first geophysical survey there in 1932, CGG has actively supported Gabon’s development of its natural resources. We are delighted to continue our fruitful cooperation with the Gabonese Republic by offering our full portfolio of Geoscience expertise to help promote the 11th Licensing Round. Given the high quality of the intermediate results we have seen so far from our recent BroadSeis survey, we expect the final results to be a significant resource for clients to de-risk this promising exploration arena. We are pleased to announce that several companies have already pre-committed to the dataset.”