Shell in its 2024 annual report released last week reveals that it has quit what had been Mauritania’s last two active exploration blocks, C-2 and C-10. This follows last year’s drilling flop at the PannaCotta-1 wildcat on block C-10 – where QatarEnergy partnered the London-based major (MEES, 17 November).
Back when Shell entered in 2018, offshore Mauritania was an exploration hotspot: ExxonMobil and Total had entered the previous year (MEES, 27 July). But Exxon quit in 2021 followed by Total in 2023, whilst BP handed back all of its exploration assets impairing $4.5bn in the process (MEES, 7 March). (CONTINUED - 215 WORDS)