An important meeting is set to take place next week in Gabon, where government officials are expected to update industry players on plans for a licensing round and a much needed revamp of the country's petroleum law.

Upstream understands that Gabon Hydrocarbons Minister Pascal Ambouroue was in London this week and held meetings with various oil company representatives ahead of the 26 March workshop in Libreville in order to "hear their opinions".

UK-based oil attorney Nicolas Bonnefoy has been appointed to lead a new team charged with revamping Gabon's 2014 Petroleum Code and is expected to address the workshop.

Ambouroue has also "quickly summoned oil company representatives to go down there (Libreville)" for the meeting.

One source said: "There is definitely momentum" building for an acreage offering and revised petroleum law, pointing at that the government "is serious about getting things moving".

Seismic player Spectrum is collaborating with the government over plans for a licensing round.

The UK-based company is currently in the midst of shooting 18,000 square kilometres of 3D seismic data in shallow-water open acreage, which will complement a Gabon library comprising about 25,000 kilometres of 2D data.

Interest in Gabon was rekindled this month after Petronas said its Boudji-1 probe in Block F-14 hit a 90-metre oil column.

To the north, Repsol is thought to have completed its Ivela-1 exploration well which was drilled in 2700 metres of water in Block E13, targeting a pre-salt objective.

Weekly

Gabon meeting to update on licensing round