Oil Voice reports that right across the border from tumultuous Zimbabwe, Zambia has invited a second round of bids for licenses to explore for oil in the country, under two months after the conclusion of the first round of bidding. The second round, announced on December 26, 2009, will include 23 blocks in six of the country’s nine provinces.

The ministry of mines and minerals development stated that the latest round will include the 12 blocks which did not receive bids in the first round, as well as 11 new blocks in the Northern, Southern, and Luapula provinces. The bidding deadline has been set for the end of June 2010. Zambia has said that the successful bidders, be they foreign or local, will need to prove their capacity to raise the financial and technical resources to carry out the required exploration work.

This is clearly an opportunity for major oil players, and will set another precedent in the way they do business in budding Africa. We will be monitoring the corporate foreign policy initiatives during and following the bidding rounds. In Zambia’s first bidding round – also for 23 oil blocks – closed back on November 6, and 11 blocks were awarded to the winning bidders in mid-November. Four foreign companies and four Zambian firms participated in the first round. Britain’s GP Petroleum and Petrodel Resources, Glint Energy of the United States and Exile Resources of Canada were chosen along with Zambian firms Majetu, Barotse Petroleum Company and Chat Milling Company Ltd.

Zambia first announced the existence of oil and gas in the North Western Province in early 2007. Zambia, which relies on copper mining for most of its foreign exchange earnings at present, does not yet produce oil, but the government says soil samples sent to European laboratories have shown good traces of oil, particularly in areas bordering oil-producing Angola. Further potential reserves were subsequently announced by then president Levy Mwanawasa in January 2008. The country originally planned its first tender for early 2008, however, the need for a major revision of its energy laws meant that the date was pushed back. A tender was finally announced in July 2008, although the tendering period was extended in August of the same year after Maxwell Mwale, the minister of mining, claimed that interested bidders, mainly local companies, had asked for more time to raise the necessary funds for the licenses. Having funds already in place is particularly important in Zambia, as the country’s revised petroleum exploration and production law states that holders of exploration licences must start exploration within 90 days of the licence award. In addition, holders of production licences must begin development and production work within two years of the awarding of the licence, or risk losing their licence altogether.