West Africa

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VAALCO Energy has announced the acquisition of nearly 1000 sq km of new dual-azimuth proprietary 3-D seismic data over the entire Etame Marine block offshore Gabon.

In November 2020, VAALCO Energy expanded its interests at the Etame Marine Block by signing a sale and purchase agreement with Sasol Gabon for the company’s 27.8% working interest in the site. This nearly doubled VAALO’s production and reserves from the block, providing the company with a total working interest of 58.8%, increasing net revenue interest production from 4,850 barrels of oil per day to 9.150.

The new 3-D seismic data, which is due to be processed and analysed by the end of Q4 2021, will be used to potentially identify new drilling locations and optimise and de-risk future drilling sites.

The total cost estimate of both the acquisition and processing of the seismic data is approximately US$14mn to US$16mn gross over the period from Q4 2020 through to Q4 2021 and VAALCO expects to fully fund its portion with cash on hand and cash from operations.

 “We are very pleased to have completed the acquisition of our new proprietary 3-D seismic survey over our entire Etame Marin Block. We will now proceed with the processing and analysis of the data that has been collected. Over the past 20 years, we have capitalized on the significant resource potential at Etame by increasing the ultimate recovery from the initial estimate of 30 million gross barrels of oil to 147 million gross barrels of oil on a 2P basis,” commented Cary Bounds, Chief Executive Officer of VAALCO Energy.

“Looking ahead, our new 3-D seismic survey is a vital tool in helping us unlock the remaining 116mn gross barrels of oil reserves and resources identified on the license. The new seismic data will help us to optimise every location that we plan to drill and potentially identify new locations to add to our drillable inventory. Additionally, our recent announcement of the acquisition of Sasol’s interest at Etame, combined with the new 3-D seismic survey, underscore our confidence in the long-term potential at Etame.”

The Etame Marin Block has been a strong operational and economic performer for VAALCO in recent years, and these investments are set to further increase returns for the company, strengthening their position as one of the leading independent exploration and production companies in West Africa.

This report is in three parts: an introduction to the West African well intervention industry, case- studies in the region to highlight and notable service companies that work in the region.

The aim of this report is to give you an introduction to the market or an update if you’re already in the know.

In West Africa’s deepwater oil and gas patch, Riserless Light Well Intervention (RLWI) conducted from drilling or other support vessels is proving to be an important resource – providing a much faster and cheaper alternative to using rigs. A rising well intervention backlog and tight budgets means this effective solution needs to be quickly and widely deployed if legacy production declines are to be addressed.

This publication is a Special Report focused on Deepwater Solutions For West Africa’s Oil and Gas Industry, featuring the region’s major industry event, West African Offshore Well Intervention Conference (OWI WA). The event is focused on Subsea Well Intervention in the West Africa offshore market. It also covers latest trends and innovation in the industry.

This paper is designed to outline well intervention and P&A opportunities available to contractors in the West Coast of Africa by analysing regional levels of activity, operator well stock and major projects (part 1).

This paper is designed to outline well intervention and P&A opportunities available to contractors in the West Coast of Africa by analysing regional levels of activity, operator well stock and major projects (part 2).

Production decline in mature fields is a common challenge to offshore operators throughout the globe. And in West Africa especially, where developing new fields often requires delving into unexplored deepwater and ultra- deepwater territories, many have decided to take advantage of innovative technical developments in enhanced oil recovery technologies to recover the maximum from their existing oil reserves.

Sonangol EP is one of those companies who, despite recent positive discoveries in its offshore pre-salt acreage which should comfortably allow Angola to maintain its status as Africa’s second largest oil producer, sees the need to ensure additional reserves are extracted from existing wells. Today, we speak with Geraldo Ramos, Senior Production Engineer at Sonangol EP who is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Aberdeen focusing on Advanced Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques with specific focus on Angolan onshore/offshore fields. We discuss his results so far, his vision for Angola’s 2018 production landscape and the experience he gained from the North Sea.

Sonangol’s Geraldo Ramos shares a unique case study outlining the results of a new approach to EOR in West Africa.