Malawi’s oil contracts now online

Six petroleum exploration licences awarded in Malawi (2011 – Surestream Petroleum Blocks 2 & 3, now Hamra Oil has 80% majority stake; 2012 – SacOil Holdings Block 1; 2013 – RAK Gas Blocks 4 & 5 and Pacific Oil Block 6)

Three production sharing agreements that the Government of Malawi entered with RAK Gas MB45 and Pacific Oil Limited for blocks 4, 5, and 6 are now available online at Resource Contracts. You can search the text, download, and add annotations.

The agreements were signed 8 days before the last elections, against the advice of the Solicitor General, based on an incomplete model agreement, and behind the backs of senior civil servants. An initial analysis shows that there are significant weaknesses in the agreements.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau is also investigating payments made by RAK Gas to Malawi’s former president Joyce Banda’s trust fund – Mudzi Transformation Trust. Civil society – the Natural Resources Justice Network and Publish What You Pay Malawi – has called on the president not to sign the renegotiated addendum with RAK Gas until investigations are concluded.

The Department of Mines confirmed in December 2015 that all mining and oil agreements were public during a stakeholders meeting on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative scoping study. Malawi joined the Extractive Industries Transpareny Initiative in 2015, published the first report last month, and has committed to contract transparency. Agreements with Paladin and Nyala were already made available online in August last year.