VAALCO Energy expects its 2025/26 drilling program offshore Gabon to get underway during the third quarter.
The company secured a rig for the campaign last December, which will comprise multiple development, appraisal or exploration wells, as well as workovers, with options to drill additional wells.
Drilling will take place at the Etame and Seent platforms, with a re-drill and various workovers planned on in the Ebouri Field to restore production and access reserves that were previously shut or removed from the proved reserves estimates due to the presence of H2S.
Earlier this year, VAALCO performed an extended flow test on the Ebouri 4-H well to assess H2S concentrations at this location, both to support equipment design and to evaluate the company’s chemical crude sweetening process.
The well has been flowing now for more than four months, with the H2S concentration within modeling expectations. It has also provided additional production; although there have been added operating costs associated with the chemical treatment.
Offshore Côte d'Ivoire, the company is a partner in the CNR-operated Baobab Field. Ahead of a planned dry dock refurbishment at Drydocks World, Dubai, the FPSO ceased production at the end of January of this year, with the final lifting of crude oil from the vessel completed in February.
After departing the field in March 2024, the FPSO is at present under tow to the shipyard in Dubai. After it has returned in 2026, VAALCO anticipates significant new development drilling to boost production from the main Baobab Field, and potentially a future development of the Kossipo Field in the same CI-40 license.
