Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe have postponed a meeting to ink production sharing contracts for five offshore oil blocks in their Joint Development Zone until " mid-February," according to a report reaching Luanda from Sao Tome on Sunday.

Deolindo da Costa, the archipelago's petroleum minister, was quoted as saying that the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC), due to take place the same day in Abuja on Thursday, would be rescheduled to another date in the middle of next month.

The postponement was to give time for Sao Tome officials to " harmonize positions on items to be discussed," said da Costa.

Production sharing contracts in the five blocks of the second licensing round in the JDZ, awarded last May, were originally due to have been signed at the end of 2005.

The process was held up as an official investigation into the awards to international oil firms uncovered "serious flaws" in the process and possible irregular payments by an oil company to Sao Tome officials.

Sao Tome and Principe President Fradique de Menezes said earlier this month that awards of the blocks in question as they stood were "harmful" to the archipelago's interests and the islands could lose 58 million U.S. dollars.

Test drilling in a JDZ oil block awarded in Sao Tome's first licensing round to Exxon Mobil and ChevronTexaco got underway this week, according to industry sources.

Source: Xinhua