Gabon-focused hydrocarbon exploration firm, Vaalco Energy will commence its 2019/2020 drilling campaign next month; The firm has returned its Etame Marin license to pre-maintenance shut-down production levels; Leading a large ministerial delegation, Minister of Petroleum, Gas and Hydrocarbons H.E. Noel Mboumba will attend the Africa Oil & Power Conference and Exhibition; The Africa Oil & Power 2019 (www.AOP2019.com) event will take place at the CTICC 1 in Cape Town, South Africa on October 9-11, 2019.

As Gabon works to increase its crude oil production by 50 percent by 2020/2021, U.S. hydrocarbon exploration firm, Vaalco Energy announced that it will begin its drilling campaign the country’s offshore this September. The Ministry of Petroleum, Gas and Hydrocarbons also announces that it will promote exploration and production opportunities at the Africa Oil & Power conference on October 9-11 in Cape Town.

The start of the drilling campaign follows a successful full-field maintenance shut down at four of Vaalco’s platforms in the Etame Marin license, which has since returned to its pre-shutdown production levels, and the extension of Vaalco’s lease contract for the Petroleo Nautipa floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to September 2021. The FPSO has a capacity to process 25,000 barrels per day from the Etame, Ebouri, Avouma, South Tchibala, North Tchibala and South-east Etame fields.

The five-well drilling campaign will begin with the Etame 9P appraisal well and follow with the 9H development well from the Etame platform. “Our current plans are to drill up to three development wells and two appraisal wellbores funded from cash on hand and cash generated from operations,” said Chief Executive Cary Bounds.

Vaalco estimates a net drilling budget of $20 million to $25 million this year and $5 million to $10 million in 2020. Further, the Gabon-focused firm said it believes that the two appraisal wells may confirm up to up to “five million net barrels of 2P oil reserves spread across six well locations targeted in future drilling campaigns.”

As part of its plans, it also expects to deliver the Vantage International Topaz jack-up drilling rig in this September.

2019 has been a year of intense activity: Gabon’s 12th Shallow and Deep Water Licensing Round is still underway; recently, with the support of the International Monetary Fund, the country enacted its revised hydrocarbon code, which is fiscally more attractive than the previous one; and Petronas announced its signing for a further two exploration permits - the two offshore blocks, F12 and F13, are said to have a production capacity of 200,000 bpd.

With proven oil reserves of 2.5 billion barrels, Gabon is one of the more established hydrocarbons producers in the Gulf of Guinea.

Coming together to discuss this year’s conference theme #MakeEnergyWork, Gabon’s Minister of Petroleum, Gas and Hydrocarbons, H.E Noel Mboumba, and a large ministerial delegation will join a powerful line-up of African petroleum industry decision-makers at the Africa Oil & Power (AOP) conference.

This year, the AOP program will feature the participation of H.E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal; H.E. Adama Barrow, President of Gambia; H.E Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, South Africa; H.E. Diamantino Azevedo, Minister of Mining and Petroleum, Angola; H.E. Gabriel M. Obiang Lima, Minister of Mines & Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea; H.E. Mouhamadou Makhtar Cisse, Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Senegal; H.E. Mahaman Laouan Gaya, Secretary General, APPO; H.E. Awow Daniel Chuang, Minister of Petroleum of South Sudan and H.E. Abdoulaye Magassouba, Minister of Mines and Geology of the Republic of Guinea.