Vaalco Energy announced that production at its Etame and Avouma / Tchibala fields in offshore Gabon, West Africa, has successfully been restored following the transfer of equipment to upgrade the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility. As previously announced, the FPSO upgrade is intended to improve water processing capacity at the facility, enabling Vaalco to increase production by 10% to 25,000 barrels of oil per day (bdp) by year-end.
“The equipment exchange from the transportation vessel onto the FPSO went flawlessly, and we were able to restart our fields in less than two days,” said Robert L. Gerry, III, Chairman and CEO.
Vaalco also announced that the barge carrying its platform for the Ebouri field has arrived in Gabon.
Plans call for the platform to be tied back via a pipeline to the FPSO facility that also serves Vaalco’s Etame and Avouma / Tchibala fields. Upon completion of the construction for the production pipeline, Vaalco will begin installing the platform. The drilling rig is expected to arrive in October.
“With the arrival of the barge carrying our production platform for the Ebouri field, we are pleased to report that Vaalco is on track with the expansion of our drilling program,” said Mr. Gerry. “The planned development of Ebouri will complement the production that we are already realizing in our Etame and Avouma / Tchibala fields. We expect the increases in both production and reserves to support continued value creation for Vaalco shareholders.”
Vaalco said that it remains on schedule to commence drilling the Ebouri development with oil production expected in December at an initial rate of 4,000 to 6,000 bpd.
