FPSO on its way back to Côte d’Ivoire as US firm continues its drilling ops in Gabon

March 13, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Houston-based energy player Vaalco Energy is weeks away from witnessing the return of a revamped floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel to a field off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire, while its drilling program offshore Gabon is still underway, using a jack-up rig owned by Borr Drilling, an offshore drilling player.

A jack up rig — Norve jack-up rig; Source: Borr Drilling

While providing an update on the planned dry dock refurbishment for the FPSO Baobab, which ceased hydrocarbon production on January 31, 2025, with the final crude oil lifting in February 2025 before the vessel departed the field in late March 2025 for Dubai for the refurbishment work, Vaalco confirmed that the revamp was completed in February 2026.

As a result, the FPSO has begun mobilization back to Côte d’Ivoire and is expected to return to the country by late March 2026. A rig has been secured for the planned development drilling program at Baobab, which is expected to start during the fourth quarter of 2026 after the unit returns to service.

The drilling campaign is anticipated to bring meaningful additions to production from the main Baobab field in CI-40. The firm was confirmed as the operator last month with a 60% working interest in the Kossipo field on the CI-40 Block. A field development plan (FDP) is set to be completed in the second half of 2026.

The field was discovered in 2002 with the Kossipo-1X well and later appraised in 2019 with the Kossipo-2A well, which tested at over 7,000 bopd. The company is working on analyzing ocean bottom node (OBN) seismic data that was recently acquired, which is helping to drive and derisk the company’s updated evaluation and assisting with the FDP.

Vaalco kicks off multi-well drilling campaign offshore Gabon

Exploration & Production

Meanwhile, the U.S. player’s phase three drilling program in Gabon kicked off in the fourth quarter of 2025 with the drilling of two pilot wells in the Etame field. Based on the results of the pilot wells, the firm proceeded with the drilling of the Etame 15H-ST1 development well in the 1V block of Etame in December 2025. Vaalco used Borr Drilling’s Norve jack-up rig for its Gabon operations during its 2021/2022 drilling campaign. This rig got another assignment in the country last year.

The well was completed and placed on production in January 2026, confirming expectations from the ET-15P pilot well results. The company recently announced that although the West Etame exploration well (ET-14P) encountered 10 meters of high-quality sands, the target zone was water-bearing.

George Maxwell, Vaalco’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Despite non-commercial Gamba sands in the West Etame exploration prospect, we are now using the well bore to side-track and drill another Gamba development well before moving to the SEENT and Ebouri platforms where we have several wells and workovers planned to enhance production, lower costs and potentially add reserves.

“The FPSO for Baobab is currently off the coast of South Africa and is expected to return to offshore Côte d’Ivoire by late March, with the field expected to restart in Q2 2026. Soon thereafter, we plan to start the Phase 5 drilling program at Baobab.”

Vaalco claims that the lower portion of the well will be plugged and abandoned. However, the wellbore will be utilized and sidetracked in the upper portion of the well to drill the ET-14H development well in the Main Fault Block of Etame, with operations expected to be completed in April.

After completing the program at the Etame platform, the U.S. player expects to move the drill rig to the SEENT and Ebouri platforms, where it has several wells and workovers planned to enhance production, lower costs, and potentially add reserves.

After the partners initiated their 3D seismic campaign at the Niosi and Guduma blocks in November 2025, the work was completed in January 2026. The seismic acquisition was conducted to satisfy the minimum commitments under the terms of the Niosi PSC and to inform the decision on whether to proceed to the second exploration period for the Guduma Block.