UPDATE: BG Group Seeks To Enter Tanzania Blocks

BG Group PLC (BG.LN) is seeking to buy into Tanzanian offshore exploration blocks owned by Ophir Energy PLC, people familiar with the matter said Friday, as interest in offshore East Africa heats up.

The transaction, the value of which is unclear, would come hard on the heels of Exxon Mobil Corp.'s (XOM) acquisition of a stake in a Tanzanian block held by Statoil ASA (STO) following a huge gas discovery in neighboring Mozambique.

However, global natural gas company BG will need approval of the Tanzanian government before it can enter the deepwater blocks owned by Ophir, a smaller U.K. independent oil group.

An official at the Tanzanian energy and mineral resources ministry confirmed BG was seeking to enter the blocks and that the government would make a decision within weeks.

A spokesman for BG and officials at Ophir's offices in the U.K. and Tanzania declined to comment.

U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil said late March that it had acquired a 35% interest in the Tanzanian deepwater Block 2 operated by Statoil for an undisclosed amount.

Other oil companies present in Tanzania include Aminex PLC (DOP.DB), Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) and Dominion Petroleum Ltd. (DPL.LN).

Tanzania has seen little oil exploration, but contains a large section of the same East African rift valley where around 2 billion barrels of oil have been discovered in Uganda.

U.S. oil independent Anadarko Corp. (APC) also made a high quality deep water gas discovery in February in the section of the Ruvuma Basin that stretches into the waters of Mozambique.

Africa-focused Ophir Energy has a strategic partnership with Tokyo Sexwale's Mvelaphanda Holdings (Proprietary) Ltd. of South Africa, according to its website.

-By Benoit Faucon and Nicholas Bariyo, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9266; benoit.faucon@dowjones.com

(James Herron in London contributed to this report.)

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