By: Ecofin agency

Liberia has awarded French multinational TotalEnergies rights to explore hydrocarbons in four offshore blocks (LB-6, LB-11, LB-17, and LB-29) covering a total area of 12,700 km².

According to official reports on Wednesday, the award follows the licensing round launched last year by the Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Agency (LPRA), the country’s upstream regulator. TotalEnergies plans to start an exploration program that will include 3D seismic surveys.

With this move, Monrovia is banking on the expertise of the French group to revive a sector that has failed to deliver a commercial oil project in two decades. Since the early 2000s, Liberia has made repeated attempts to join the ranks of African oil producers.

Several majors, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Repsol, obtained exploration licenses, but none of their drilling campaigns led to commercially viable finds. In 2016, ExxonMobil drilled the Mesurado-1 well, which proved unsuccessful. Similarly, the Narina field, identified earlier by African Petroleum (now PetroNor), was deemed unviable.

These failures have hindered Liberia’s ability to benefit from offshore resources, while neighbors such as Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire advanced their own discoveries. The setbacks also drove investors away, limiting production prospects.

By bringing TotalEnergies into these offshore blocks, Monrovia hopes to break the cycle. The choice of a company with strong deepwater expertise is seen as an advantage, though the outcome remains uncertain.

Success will depend on seismic data and future drilling. Globally, about 70% of exploration wells do not result in commercially exploitable discoveries, according to Westwood Global Energy, in a report published in June 2025.