Sierra Leone granted exploration rights for four offshore oil blocks to Nigeria’s Marginal Energy, in a bid to reignite investor interest in the industry.
The deal comes as Sierra Leone plans to issue more offshore licenses and follows separate agreements between Freetown and energy giants Shell and Eni over the last year to explore more than 20 oil blocks.
African energy companies are seeing a boom in oil exploration activities, riding the wave of a favorable financing environment for the sector encouraged by US President Donald Trump’s push away from clean energy. Investment in sub-Saharan Africa’s upstream oil and gas sector is projected to rise by 12% to nearly $24 billion this year, according to the International Energy Agency.