Côte d’Ivoire announces “major discovery” of oil and natural gas

Published on : 09/02/2021 – 12:25

Côte d’Ivoire, a modest producer of hydrocarbons, announced on Wednesday 1^er September the “major discovery” of oil and natural gas off its coasts. These new resources were spotted during exploratory drilling carried out by the Italian hydrocarbon giant Eni.

“A major discovery of oil in the sedimentary basin of the Ivory Coast has just been made by the Italian company Eni in the CI-101 block, in deep water, operated in consortium with the national company Petroci Holding”, indicates in a statement by the Ivorian Minister of Mines and Petroleum, Thomas Camara. “The discovered reserves relate to crude oil and associated natural gas.”

“The potential can be estimated in a preliminary way [entre] about 1.5 [et] 2 billion barrels of crude oil on the one hand, and on the other hand [entre] 1,800 [et] 2,400 billion cubic feet of associated gas, “said Thomas Camara. This discovery should accelerate the production of oil and gas in Côte d’Ivoire in the years to come.

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Growing oil production

In 2019, the country signed contracts with the Italian Eni and the French Total, for the exploration of four oil blocks corresponding to an investment of 185 million dollars. Oil production, which increased by 12% in 2019 to reach more than 36,000 barrels per day, comes from drilling wells located mainly offshore, near the border with Ghana (east).

Côte d’Ivoire, a modest producer, revised its petroleum code in 2015 to attract new investors, thanks to production sharing contracts.

The country has 51 identified fields including 4 in production, 26 in exploration and 21 still free or under negotiation.

In 2014, the French group Total had mentioned a “very promising result” about its research in very deep waters off the Ivory Coast. In addition to Total and Eni, several international companies, in particular the British Tullow Oil, have announced important discoveries in recent years.

With AFP