Exploration

The ultra-deepwater drillship, Sonangol Quenguela, will continue to operate in Angola.

Seadrill's joint venture with Sonangol-affiliate, Sonadrill Holding, has been awarded a contract extension

The ultra-deepwater drillship, Sonangol Quenguela, will continue to operate in Angola for an additional 480 days now that its seven-well priced option has already been exercised. The extension secures availability of the rig till June 2028. 

Seadrill earns a management fee for providing management, operational and technical support to Sonadrill. 

Sonangol is conducting well tests on the TO-14 well in Block KON-11 while engineering work continues too. Well clean-up operations using nitrogen resulted in significant water production with oil shows and nominal oil saturation levels. 

Sonangol has recently received financial backing from African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), covering the national oil company's projected operating and capital expenditure with a US$1.75bn syndicated receivables purchase facility. It has been designed with Sonangol's export-linked trade structures in mind, aligning with Afreximbank’s push for Africa’s prominence in global trade by promoting demand-intensive commodities for export. This strategic financing will support Sonangol in unlocking better access into the export market, which can prove to be a goldmine for the region given global oil supply volatilities. 

Both of the Magoga wells drilled the full reservoir interval. (Image source: Assala)

Assala Energy has found hydrocarbons in the targeted reservoir interval in the Magoga-1 exploration well

The well is located in the Mutamba Iroru II Licence in Gabon, which also comes with a sidetrack into the Atora II Licence.

Going by the initial data acquired during drilling the presence of 8 meters of hydrocarbon has been identified within the Gamba Sandstone formation. This will be followed by integration and interpretation of the well to assess reservoir properties, fluid characteristics and volumetric potential. These will determine the company's next steps, while deciding if there's any requirement for any additional appraisal activity.

“This result provides encouraging subsurface information from the Mutamba Iroru II & Atora Licence and adds to our understanding of the basin’s prospectivity,” said Timothee de Reynal, subsurface director at Assala Energy. “Our immediate focus is on completing a thorough technical evaluation of the data gathered from the well and determining the appropriate forward work programme.”

Both of the Magoga wells drilled the full reservoir interval and safely completed operations in line with applicable operational, environmental and safety standards.

The discovery will be subject to further technical analysis and, where appropriate, additional studies or appraisal activity. No determination has yet been made regarding commerciality, and no decision has been taken regarding development.

Assala Energy will continue to work closely with the relevant authorities, its stakeholders and shareholders, as it progresses the evaluation of the well results.

This start-up comes after 16 years. (Image source: TotalEnergies)

TotalEnergies has restarted production at the Mabruk oil field onshore Libya, located in concession C17, around 130 km south of Sirte

This start-up comes after 16 years, since production from the field stopped in 2015.

The construction of a new production unit with a capacity of 25,000 barrels per day was launched in May 2024. Start-up of this new facility occurred on February 28, 2026, less than two years after the project was launched.

“This restart illustrates our long-term commitment in Libya, as we celebrate TotalEnergies’ 70th anniversary in the country this year,” said Julien Pouget, Middle East and North Africa Director for TotalEnergies’ Exploration & Production business. “This project, which follows TotalEnergies’ recent announcements regarding the extension of the Waha concessions, brings low-cost, low-emissions oil production in line with the Company’s strategy, and contributes to our objective of 3% annual production growth per year until 2030.”

TotalEnergies holds an interest of 37.5% at the Mabruk. 

TotalEnergies has also signed a 34-year extension agreement on the Waha Concessions onshore Libya. As the concessions continue to produce around 370,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), TotalEnergies plans to kickstart additional phased investments that will advance the development of the North Gialo field. This will unlock 100,000 boe/d of boosted production.

The target zone was water bearing.

As part of phase three drilling programme offshore Gabon, Vaalco Energy has completed drilling the Etame West ET-14P exploration well

The target zone was water bearing even though 10 meters of high-quality Gamba sands were encountered in line with pre-drill predictions. Awaiting partner approval, this finding can be further pursued by utilising the well bore part to sidetrack it in the upper portion of the well. This move is expected to support the drilling of the ET-14H development well in the Main Fault Block of Etame. 

The lower portion of the well will be plugged and abandoned. Operations are expected to be completed in April.

George Maxwell, Vaalco’s chief Executive Officer, said, “When we committed to drilling the Etame West exploration well, we knew there was the geologic risk of not encountering commercial sands but the size of the potential reservoir made it a risk worth taking. Furthermore, we purposely designed the well so we could still utilise the well bore to drill a development well into a known productive area if the sands were non-commercial. This side-tracked well should be completed in April.” 

Vaalco has also been spudding the ET-15 infill well on the Etame platform as part of Phase Three Drilling Programme offshore Gabon.

This infill well is anticipated to significantly add to the production generation capacity of the floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO) that is operational on the Etame Block since 2022 following an extensive transition and field reconfiguration process. While a low cost solution, the FSO boasts of a high storage capacity and improved operational performance. It has helped Vaalco reach operational excellence, and production uptime and enhancement.