Guinea-Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz this month signed off on an array of fiscal adjustments ahead of a 3D seismic survey due to take place later this year, writes Barry Morgan.
The reforms were deemed necessary for state-owned oil company Petroguin to accelerate the promotion and development of the country's offshore resources.
Suitors were earlier deterred from entering the Bissau deep waters by onerous minimal work programmes and inordinately high government take, but several deep-water operators among 18 committed candidates are now taking notice, according to Mark Groves Gidney, general manager of GeoPartners subsidiary Bissau Exploration Company (BEC).
