On 3 July 2019, it was reported that Eni with partner Vitol obtained Block 3, deep waters of the Tano Basin which had been offered in Ghanaâs First Offshore Licensing Round. Other participants in the acreage will be the Ghana national Petroleum Corporation and an indigenous player who will be selected during the contract negotiation. The authorities have invited the companies for negotiation on the detailed terms of the Petroleum Agreement, and the official award will follow.  Block 3 is located around 50 km south-east of the Eni-operated Sankofa gas/condensate/oil field.    Tullow Oil was the other company who lodged a bid for this block.    In May 2019, it appeared that the Ghanaian Ministry of Energy was disappointed with the outcome of the bid round after receiving only three bids for the six blocks on offer. The deadline for the submission of bids was 21 May 2019.     Sixteen companies had expressed interest in pursuing bids for open acreage these included: Tullow Oil, Total, ENI, Cairn, Harmony Oil and Gas Corporation, ExxonMobil, CNOOC, Qatar Petroleum, BP, Vitol, Global Petroleum Group, Aker Energy, First E&P, Kosmos, Sasol and Equinor.    The auction was open on 15 October 2018. Of the six blocks on offer, only three (Blocks 2, 3 and 4) were open to competitive bid. Ultra-deep-water Block 5 and Block 6 would be awarded after direct negotiations with IOCs with relevant technical expertise and financial capacity. The coastal Block 1 will stay under control of National oil company GNPC that will operate the permit with a foreign company as technical partner.
Eni (op) Vitol, GNPC and a yet-to-be-disclosed local company have secured rights to WB03 (block 3), medium-deep waters. WB03 lies ab. 50km SE of the John Agyekum Kufuor (JAK) FPSO serving the Sankofa field and is adjacent east to UB Resourcesâ Offshore Cape Three Points South block. It is also assumed to contain the Lynx-1 o&g discovery (Lukoil, 2014).