A second discovery of crude oil and natural gas in Block CI-802 of Cote d’Ivoire’s offshore sedimentary basin has been confirmed.
The Ivorian Minister of Mines, Oil and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly made the announcement in a statement on Thursday.
“A second discovery of crude oil and natural gas has just been made by the Italian oil company Eni and its partner PETROCI Holding, in block CI-802 of the Cote d’Ivoire offshore sedimentary basin,” he wrote.
Block CI-802 is adjacent to block CI-101 in which a first discovery was made in 2021, by the same consortium, the minister says.
He explains that this new discovery, which confirms the extension of the Whale field in block CI-802, increases by about 25 percent the initially announced reserves of the said field, which thus increase from 2 to 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil and from 2,400 to 3,300 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
The new discovery, which further enhances the potential of the Ivorian sedimentary basin, reassures the Eni and PETROCI Holding consortium, which is committed to the accelerated production of the Baleine Field in the first half of 2023, that is to say, about a year and a half after the first discovery, Mr. Sangafowa-Coulibaly concluded.
PIG/ls/cgd/fss/as/APA