Gabon - ETAME MARIN CONCESSION
Etame Field
The Etame discovery in offshore Gabon was made in 1998 and three delineation wells were drilled prior to the field being declared commercial in 2001. The development program to bring three of the wells on production was completed in August 2002.
First oil production from the Etame field began in September 2002. VAALCO has four sub-sea completed wells operating from the Gamba reservoir in the Etame Field.
Avouma & South Tchibala Fields
The Avouma and South Tchibala fields are located approximately ten miles southeast of the Etame field. In July of 2004, a successful exploration well was drilled. In 2006, VAALCO installed a platform and drilled two successful development wells, one in each field. Production commenced from the two platform wells in January 2007.
Ebouri Field
The Ebouri field is located about seven miles to the northwest of the Etame field. A successful wildcat well was drilled in January 2004 encountering approximately 48 feet of net oil pay in the Gamba sandstone. In August 2008, VAALCO completed the installation of the production platform for this well, and the platform was tied back via pipeline to the FPSO facility. Two successful development wells were drilled from the platform – the first well began producing oil in January 2009 and the second well was placed on production in April 2009.
FPSO
The oil produced from the Etame, Avouma, South Tchibala and Ebouri fields is pumped by pipelines to the Petroleo Nautipa, a one-million barrel floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO). Oil production from the four fields combined is approximately 25,000 barrels of oil per day. Transfers/sales via commercial tanker generally occur from the FPSO every 30 to 45 days.