Three companies acquired exploration rights to four blocks in the Atlantic off Sierra Leone while three blocks were not awarded.
Repsol YPF SA acquired blocks SL-6 and SL-7, while Oranto Petroleum Ltd. won Block 5 and 8 Investments Inc. took Block 4. Each block covers 4,000 sq km.
Previous drilling occurred on shallow portions of blocks SL-4 and SL-6.
The government is considering whether to hold a second licensing round in 2004 for the remaining blocks, said TGS-Nopec Geophysical Co., Houston, which helped coordinate the first round.
Utah
Double Eagle Petroleum Co., Casper, Wyo., and unidentified partners hold interests in more than 30,000 acres of leases and farmouts in the Table Top Unit on the Christmas Meadows prospect on the Overthrust Belt in Summit County.
Double Eagle, founded in 1972, operates the unit with 28.81% interest before payout and 27.08% after payout.
The prospect is a large anticlinal closure along the Unita Mountain front. An initial test well is to be drilled to 15,000 ft to test the Cretaceous Frontier and Dakota sandstones.