Energy data and intelligence firm TGS launched the Ultra Profundo 2D multi-client seismic survey offshore Angola in February 2026, marking the first wide-area campaign in the country’s ultra-deepwater acreage since 2015. Covering 12,600 line-km and executed by the Ramform Victory, the program targets complex pre-salt and sub-salt structures. Fast-track products are expected in Q3 2026, with full processing by Q2 2027.

The launch underscores a broader structural shift across Africa’s frontier basins: modern seismic reprocessing and sophisticated digital data rooms are redefining how capital is allocated. From Mauritania’s 100,000 km² MegaSurvey to Nigeria’s fully digital 50-block licensing round, operators are replacing speculative drilling with data-driven decision-making, accelerating licensing, improving well success rates and reshaping investment risk profiles.

Ultra-Deep Imaging Reshapes Frontier Risk

Angola’s Ultra Profundo campaign builds on a wave of large-scale seismic modernization. In December 2025, TGS unveiled the Mauritania MegaSurvey, Africa’s largest contiguous 3D dataset, spanning more than 100,000 km² offshore. Processed with Full Waveform Inversion and Reverse Time Migration, the dataset provides basin-wide petroleum system visibility from nearshore to ultra-deepwater, directly supporting Mauritania’s planned 15-block auction in 2026.

In West Africa, Sierra Leone completed a 7,500 km² offshore 3D campaign in mid-2025 alongside 16,000 line-km of new 2D data, its most active upstream effort in a decade. Concurrent legacy reprocessing initiatives aim to clarify prospects such as Vega ahead of a sixth licensing round. Meanwhile, at Nigeria’s Agbami field, a completed 4D survey is guiding a 2026 infill drilling program following concession renewal through 2044.

In East Africa, TGS secured exclusive rights in late 2025 to market over 10,000 line-km of 2D seismic data offshore Comoros and extended its mandate in Somalia, covering 46,000 line-km of 2D and 50,000 km of aeromagnetic data. Advanced nodal seismic – now representing roughly a third of global acquisition – and automated seismic full-waveform inversion are shortening imaging cycles from months to weeks, materially reducing dry-hole risk in complex salt and carbonate systems.

Digital Data Rooms Accelerate Capital Deployment

Parallel to imaging upgrades, governments are modernizing licensing through digital data rooms. In January 2026, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission opened bidding for 50 blocks under a fully digital framework aligned with the country’s Petroleum Industry Act. Signature bonuses were reduced, and transparency strengthened, aiming to attract over $10 billion while lifting production toward 2.7 million barrels per day by 2027.

Elsewhere, Equatorial Guinea’s EG Ronda 2026 will offer 24 blocks with improved fiscal terms. Guinea-Conakry has established a national seismic data visualization center with global technology company SLB and TGS, digitizing 60,000 km² of seismic data to support 22 future blocks. Across the continent, these platforms are improving bankability, shortening bid cycles and aligning frontier exploration with disciplined capital allocation through 2030.

These structural shifts in seismic imaging and digital licensing frameworks are set to feature prominently at African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 in Cape Town this October. At AEW, regulators, national oil companies and independent explorers will be well-positioned to showcase updated data rooms, farm-out opportunities and frontier basin results. With deal rooms increasingly driven by high-resolution subsurface models and cloud-based seismic libraries, AEW 2026 is set to serve as a marketplace for data-backed acreage, aligning capital providers with de-risked prospects across Angola, Mauritania, Nigeria, emerging East Africa plays and the broader continent as a whole.

“Africa’s energy renaissance is being powered by data, not speculation,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber. “When governments modernize seismic libraries and open transparent digital data rooms, they lower risk, unlock capital and give investors the confidence to drill frontier basins that were once considered too complex or too costly.”

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