The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has cancelled the auction of 27 oil exploration sites due to late bids and insufficient competition, the government announced.
Launched two years ago, the auction of these oil blocks, containing an estimated 22 billion barrels of oil, fell short of expectations.
Oil Minister Aime Sakombi Molendo confirmed in a statement that a new auction would be held but did not provide details on the timeline or the number of blocks to be included.
The DRC, a resource-rich central African country with significant oil reserves, has so far limited drilling to a small area along the Atlantic Ocean and offshore waters. The auction was seen as potentially transformative for the nation’s oil industry.
Environmental groups have raised concerns since the auction began in July 2022, warning that expanding oil drilling could have serious consequences both locally and globally.
The DRC is home to the majority of the Congo Basin rainforest, the world’s second-largest, and its vast tropical peatlands, which store around 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Several of the cancelled auction sites overlap with protected rainforests and peatlands, including Virunga National Park, a sanctuary for some of the world’s rarest gorillas.
