By: CNBC Africa

Equatorial Guinea will open a new oil and gas licensing round in April 2026 to stimulate exploration and counter its declining oil production. Antonio Oburu Ondo, the country's Minister of Hydrocarbons and Mining Development, announced the plan at an energy conference in Cape Town.

The licensing round, which will run until November 2026, will offer 24 blocks for bidding. Two of these blocks are onshore, with the remainder located offshore.

The initiative is a direct response to a significant drop in the country's oil output. According to OPEC data, Equatorial Guinea's production has fallen sharply from a peak of 241,000 barrels per day in 2010 to just 55,000 barrels per day in 2023. The International Monetary Fund has projected modest economic growth of 0.9% per year from 2025 to 2030, attributing the slow pace largely to this decline in hydrocarbon production.

In a related development, Chevron's subsidiary, Noble Energy, has agreed on terms with the government to develop the Aseng gas project. This agreement paves the way for a final investment decision on the project, located in Block I of the Douala Basin. The government stated the project will involve an initial investment of approximately $690 million and will help sustain supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to global markets.

This project supports Equatorial Guinea's broader ambition to become a regional gas-processing hub. As part of this strategy, the country agreed with Nigeria last year to jointly construct the Gulf of Guinea Gas Pipeline. It is also pursuing the development of the $4.5 billion EG-27 LNG project, which Afreximbank reports could produce 2.4 million metric tons of LNG annually for two decades.