Cote d’Ivoire Offers 32 Oil Blocks To Investors For Exploration

Côte d’Ivoire has announced the opening of 32 oil blocks in both offshore and onshore to investors who want to invest in the country’s oil and gas industry.

Officials of the country’s national oil company, Petroci, revealed this during a presentation  at the just ended Africa Oil Week in Dubai, UAE.

Speaking to energynewsafrica.com at the Africa Oil Week, head of promotion at Petroci, Mireille Chiniango Niango Epse Aka said the country is seriously looking for investors to develop their hydrocarbons.

According to her, the country’s oil basin holds about 50 oil blocks with some of them already being explored by drilling.

“One of the reasons we came here today is to present all these opportunities and we hope that we will have investors and partners to have discoveries. We want more investors to explore our basin. We want to prove that our basin is very well.”

She told energynewsafrica.com that the country’s regulatory regime is very flexible, stressing that among what they do is that ‘’we invite partners to visit our data room and we have some facilities to help them.’’

She added, “Usually, we have three periods and in the first period we don’t ask investors to drill a well. What we ask for is to make a lot of studies and in the second period they will drill.”

As at 2019, the West African nation’s crude oil production was  about 50,357 barrel per day (bpd).

However, due to impact of covid-19, production levels have dropped to about 29,000 barrel per day.

The country is therefore looking to increasing its production in the future.

In September this year, Italian oil and gas major, Eni, announced a major oil discovery in block CI-101 offshore Ivory Coast.

The block is operated by Eni with Petroci Holding, who hold 90 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in the exploration phase. 

The discovery well has been drilled on the Baleine prospect, with the support of the Government in the difficult context of the pandemic-covid-19.

The well was drilled about 60 kilometers off the coast, in about 1,200 meters of water depth with the Saipem 10,000 drill ship and reached a total depth of 3,445 meters in 30 days.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com