Vaalco advances FPSO overhaul and drilling plans off Africa

Houston-based Vaalco Energy has provided an update on its exploration agenda offshore Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon.

As disclosed in the company’s Q1 2025 results, the company has multiple plans in the works related to its oil and gas developments in central and western Africa.

In the Baobab field in Block CI-40 offshore Côte d’Ivoire, the floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) Baobab stopped hydrocarbon production on January 31, 2025, as part of the planned dry dock refurbishment. After the final crude oil was lifted from the FPSO in February 2025, the vessel departed from the field in late March 2025 and is now being towed to the shipyard in Dubai for refurbishment.

“In Côte D’Ivoire, we commenced the FPSO refurbishment project and are preparing for a drilling campaign in 2026 to augment the production and economic life of the Baobab field,” said George Maxwell, Vaalco’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The Baobab field is located 30 kilometers off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire in water depths ranging from 900 to 1,300 meters and consists of five distinguishable reservoir units in Middle to Late Albian sequences.

The field is operated by Canadian Natural Resources International (CNRL), with a 57.61% working interest. Vaalco has a 27.39% stake after acquiring Svenska Petroleum last year, and the remaining 15% is held by the national oil company, Petroci Holding.

Vaalco hopes to kick off “significant” development drilling in 2026, after which the FPSO Baobab is expected to return to service with potential meaningful additions to production from the Baobab field. The development of the Kossipo field, which is also on the license, is another possibility.

In March 2025, the U.S. player announced having farmed into another block in the country, CI-705. The company is the operator of the block with a 70% working interest and a 100% paying interest through a commercial carry arrangement and is partnering with Ivory Coast Exploration Oil & Gas SAS and Petroci.

The CI-705 block is located in what is said to be the prolific Tano basin, approximately 70 kilometers west of the CI-40 block. It covers approximately 2,300 square kilometers and is lightly explored, with three wells drilled to date on the block. The water depth across the block ranges from zero to 2,500 meters. The acquisition of the stake in the block cost Vaalco $3 million.

Based on the firm’s initial assessment, the block contains both oil and natural gas prospects. A detailed, integrated geological analysis is planned to assess and mature the understanding of the block’s overall prospectivity.

According to Maxwell, assets in Gabon have seen a strong performance, and the company is preparing for the 2025/2026 drilling program which is scheduled to start in Q3 2025.

Vaalco secured a drilling rig from Bor Drilling’s fleet in December 2024 to carry out its 2025/2026 drilling program. The program entails drilling multiple development wells, appraisal or exploration wells, as well as workovers, with options to drill additional wells.

The U.S. player intends to drill the wells at the Etame platform and the Southeast Etame North Tchibala (SEENT) platform. Furthermore, re-drill and several workovers are envisaged in the Ebouri field to access production and reserves that were previously shut in and removed from proved reserves due to the presence of hydrogen sulfide (H2S).

Vaalco says it conducted an extended flow test on the Ebouri 4-H well in Q1 2025 to gather information on the H2S concentrations at this location to aid in equipment design and to evaluate its chemical crude sweetening process.

Now that the well has flowed for over four months, the H2S concentration is said to be within modeling expectations. While this resulted in some additional operating costs associated with the chemical treatment, the firm says it has provided additional production, adding to what it says are strong first-quarter results.

In March 2025, the oil and gas firm entered into a revolving credit facility to provide short-term funding for its planned investment programs over the next few years. The new loan replaces the company’s existing undrawn revolving credit facility that was provided by Glencore. It is secured with Vaalco’s assets in Gabon, Egypt and Côte d’Ivoire.