In October 2012, the government of the Comoros Islands issued a statement that only one company, Mozambique Channel Discovery Ltd. (MCD), a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Boulle Mining Group, has oil and gas exploration and production rights throughout the territorial waters of the Comoros.
MCD says it is assisting the government of the Comoros with the development of its offshore energy sector. The Comoros Ministry of Planning is in charge of the regulation of the country's oil sector. The state-owned oil company, Societe Comorienne des Hydrocarbures (SCH), known as Comor Hydrocarbures, is responsible for marketing and distributing imported fuel products.
Fouad Mohadji, vice president and minister for energy and industry of Comoros, spoke at an oil, gas and energy conference in Nairobi on 28 March 2012, saying the government was taking its first steps to develop its exploration strategy.
It was reported then, that Comoros had awarded an exploration and production licence to a privately-owned Kenya-based exploration company, Bahari Resources Ltd., but that no longer seems to be accurate.
The Comoro Islands comprise an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Mozambique Channel of the Indian Ocean, between northern Madagascar and northern Mozambique, off East Africa. The three main northern islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Mohéli, comprise the Union of the Comoros, a sovereign state.
[A fourth major island to the southeast, Mayotte, and adjacent Petite Terre, are one of the five overseas departments (DOM) of France.]
Comoros offshore acreage is adjacent to offshore Area 1 and Area 4 of Mozambique's Rovuma Delta area, where Italy's Eni S.p.A. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. have discovered hydrocarbons.
"We believe our country represents one of the last prospective offshore frontiers for oil and gas," Mohadji said.
Comoros declaried independence from France in 1975, and the economy is based on agriculture, fishing, and tourism.
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