Vaalco Energy has secured an extra tranche of funding as it reorganises its portfolio in Côte d’Ivoire and prepares to drill in Gabon
The Africa-focused company has assets spread across West Africa, in Gabon, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, as well as in Canada.
This week it announced that it secured a new US$300mn revolving credit facility as it steps up work, notably in Côte d’Ivoire where it has just farmed into the CI-705 block offshore.
Vaalco is to become operator of the block with a 70% working interest and a 100% paying interest though a commercial carry arrangement and is partnering with Ivory Coast Exploration Oil & Gas SAS and state-owned PETROCI.
The CI-705 block is located in the prolific Tano basin, approximately 70 km to the west of the company’s other block, CI-40, where the Baobab and Kossipo oil fields are located.It also sits 60 km west of Eni’s recent Calao discovery.
The move comes a month or after the cessation of production activities from the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, Baobab Ivoirien MV10, operated by Canadian Natural Resources International, with a final lifting of crude oil in February.
The Baobab FPSO is to be wet towed to shipyards in Dubai for refurbishment upon departure from the area, scheduled for 24 March, Vaalco said in a statement.
George Maxwell, Vaalco’s chief executive officer, said the company is keen to expand its footprint offshore Côte d’Ivoire with access to CI-705 block, just a year after it first gained access to the market.
“We believe the CI-705 block is favourably located in a proven petroleum system, near existing infrastructure with access to a strong growing domestic market with attractive upside potential,” he said.
Under the terms of the farm-in, Vaalco will conduct seismic reprocessing and interpretation stages and potentially the drilling up to two exploration wells.
“Our initial assessment is that there are both oil and natural gas prospects on the block and we plan to conduct a detailed, integrated geological analysis to assess and mature our understanding of the block’s overall prospectivity.”
Vaalco invested US$3mn to acquire its interest in the new block, which covers approximately 2,300 sq km.
Located in water depths from zero to 2,500 metres, the block is lightly explored with just three wells drilled to date.
“We have demonstrated our ability to acquire, develop and enhance value with the accretive acquisitions we have executed in the past,” said Maxwell.
“We are also excited about the major projects that we have planned in 2025 and 2026, which are expected to deliver a step-change in organic growth across our portfolio.”
This year it intends to conduct drilling in Gabon, to enhance production and add reserves at the Etame and Ebouri fields.
The company’s total production averaged around 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2024.
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Vaalco Energy prepares for West Africa work
Côte d’Ivoire offshore blocks (IMAGE SOURCE: Vaalco Energy)
