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In an effort to push into the West African oil and gas market, ExxonMobil are nearing a deal to explore offshore Mauritania.
Recent discoveries by Cairn Energy and Kosmos Energy in Mauritania and Senegal have heightened interest in the West Africa region as a potential oil rich area.
Both locations are expected to be producing in 2018.
BP has already begun development in the area while Total has purchase several exploration licences.
ExxonMobil declines to comment on the deal, but told Reuters that the company does not yet have drilling activities in Mauritania.
“We have agreed on the terms of three blocks,” Moustapha Bechir, Mauritania’s director general of oil, energy and mines told Reuters while speaking at an Oil & Gas Council conference in Dakar.
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