WEST AFRICA

Fred Akanni
Lagos

Equatorial Guinea's new blocks on offer. [24,307 bytes]

Total aggressive in deepwater Gabon tracts

Less than six months after taking over as operator, Total has commenced a vast 3D data acquisition program on the Anton and Astrid Marin Blocks in offshore Gabon. Total will acquire 4,400 sq km of 3D in both blocks, which are 6,907 sq km and 6,590 sq km, respectively.

The two blocks are located in the CongoFan-Lower Congo basin, in the southeastern corner of the deepwater complex offshore Gabon. Until October 1998, the blocks were held 80% by Vanco, which took over the Anton Marin lease in May 1997 and the Astrid Marin lease in February 1998. Both leases are in water depths of 1,000-3,000 meters. Vanco shot a total of 3,000 line km of 2D data on the two leases and the data has been processed.

Nigeria gives leases to retired generals, government cronies

After a wait of 18-months, multinational companies bidding for leases in the ultra-deepwater offshore Niger Delta finally got the message that the 10 blocks were nothing more than government patronage, meant to be shared among retired generals and business people with access to the seat of power.

There were no open bidding exercises for the leases: OPLs 242-250, and OPL 214, which lie in water depths between 1,500 meters and 3,000 meters. The leases attracted a signature bonus of $20 million each. In one stroke in mid-March, the government awarded the leases to companies belonging to four retired generals, one civilian former minister for petroleum, the No. 2 man in the incumbent administration, and a former head of state. There were reports that one businessman who got a lease represented the incumbent head of state.

The multinationals are expected to act as technical partners to these indigenous companies, and come in as equity holders of no more than 40% in each block. Observers interpret the awards as a gift by the current government to itself, as it prepares to hand over the reins to a successor on May 29, 1999.

The problem with the situation is that it reinforces the idea that the military, having ruled Nigeria for 30 out of 38 years, is having withdrawal symptoms as Nigerians urges a hand over of power. Nigerians went to the polls on February 27 to elect a civilian president after 15 years of uninterrupted military rule. The president-elect is a retired general who was sponsored by a group of retired generals perceived to have formed a power brokerage club.

Consolidated completes survey, looks to Amatu

With budget constraints and a focus on the Amatu Field, Nigerian oil company Consolidated Oil terminated the acquisition of 3D seismic data in its offshore lease OPL 458 at the end of February. As of the last recording, some 867 sq km, or 43% of the proposed 2,000 sq km of data, had been acquired.

"We'd rather interpret this (the acquired) area and forge ahead with our exploration and development plans rather than spend all the money acquiring data in areas we might never drill in," one company source stated. Consolidated's main target is the Amatu Field, discovered by Japan Petroleum in 1973 and thought to contain 10 million bbl estimated recoverable oil reserves.

"After interpretation, we'd like to sink a development well," the source added. There are six wells on the structure, which is a footwall closure.

Amatu field lies 25 km due west of Shell's 300 million bbl EA Field(OML79), which is about to go onstream. Consolidated has been talking to several major companies, for help in financial and technical support for the project. The new data will confirm or downgrade a number of promising prospects and leads, which Consolidated has identified in old vintages of 2D seismic data. "If we can confirm some of those prospects, and they are successful, they look like small pockets of oil we can tie together into a production platform," the source concluded.

Equatorial Guinea may extend bid deadline

The May 10 deadline for Equatorial Guinea's first deepwater bidding round may be extended, not because of poor response, but "in order to give more companies the opportunity to evaluate the data and participate," according to a source in Malabo, the capital of the small island country located in the Gulf of Guinea.

Thirty blocks are on offer, including some which appear to have boundary problems with neighboring Nigeria. Deep offshore Equatorial Guinea naturally will have analogous geological frame work as the deepwater segment of the South East Offshore Nigeria, which has proved to hold oil with the Elf discovery Ukot-1 (600 million bbl of oil). Water depths range between 200 meters to 2000 meters.

The main data so far is the processed product of the seismic survey carried out last year by Western Geophysical. Besides, the British company Exploration Consultants, which advises the Equatorial Guinea government on the bidding exercise, is offering geological data. Equatorial Guinea joined the league of oil producing nations in December 1996, when Mobil turned the tap on Zafiro. Zafiro is now producing 80,000 b/d of oil.

Ivoireian deepwater activity takes off

Operators have been cautious about the deepwater Ivory Coast, in spite of assurances of promoters that the terrain holds substantially more oil than the shelf and inland terrains, which have been the poorest oil store among the producing countries in West Africa. The Ivory Coast is booked as having 100 million bbl proven recoverable reserves in store, ranking lowest on the list of oil producers in Africa, after Democratic Republic of Congo's 200 million bbl.

Ocean Energy has booked 3.6 billion bbl of potential oil for the unexplored deepwater Ivory Coast , and these are said to be stored in 26 structures, in water depths between 500 meters and 2,000 meters. With 700 sq km of new 3D data, the company has mapped a tertiary channel play that is analogous to Elf's 500-million-bbl Girrassol structure in deep offshore Angola.

Now, while Ocean Energy's first drilling (Bandan-1) is expected before the end of first half 1999 in CI-105, activities on other blocks have begun in earnest. A 2D and 3D seismic survey has commenced in blocks CI-101, 103, and 40. The 2D survey is presumed to be the reconnaissance work over CI-101 and 103, and the 3D coverage is believed to be targeting the Romeo prospect in CI-40.