From UK Reuters

Seychelles has invited oil and gas companies to bid for exploration blocks, ending a two-year moratorium and introducing new rules for bidders after completing a review of laws regulating the sector.

East Africa has become a focus for exploration after oil discoveries in Uganda and Kenya as well as natural gas finds in Tanzania and Mozambique. Seychelles is attracting interest but had put off licensing more blocks until it reviewed its laws.

“We want bona fide explorers to invest in Seychelles and drill wells to test our petroleum potential rather than speculate and sit on an area for their own commercial purposes,” President James Alix Michel, who is also in charge of the hydrocarbons portfolio in government, said in a statement on Monday.

Read more at uk.reuters.com