August 11, 2009 by Focus Energy Media 

Zambia has extended the bidding process for petroleum exploration for the second time, the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.

The bids for exploration of petroleum products will now be closed in November instead of August as earlier announced. The bids were initially supposed to be close in July, according to Daily Mail.

Petroleum Committee Chairman Maxwell Mwale said the extension of the bidding process had resulted from requests by some Zambians and international investors interested in petroleum exploration in the southern African country.

In a speech read for him by his deputy Kenneth Konga, Mwale, who is also the country's Minister of Mines and Minerals Development, said the bidding process will close on November 6.

The country's Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development under its Geological Survey Department had been doing petroleum exploration using the microbial prospecting for oil and gas technique.

Mwale said the laboratory results indicated the presence of gas and oil in the country.