Eni strikes more oil, gas off Cote d'Ivoire
Eni has encountered oil and gas at an exploration well in the Baleine oil and gas project offshore Cote d'Ivoire, increasing in-place hydrocarbon reserves by roughly 25% ahead of the project's planned launch in the first half of 2023.
Eni said July 28 that its Baleine East 1X well was drilled to a measured depth of 3,165 m at CI-802 block, around 5 km east of the first Baleine discovery, in the adjacent licence CI-101. This is the first exploration well drilled in CI-802.
Baleine's in-place potential is now estimated at 2.5bn barrels of oil and 3.3 trillion ft3 of natural gas.
The well confirmed the presence of a 48-m continuous oil column that flowed 12,000 barrels/day of crude and 14mn ft3/d of associated gas in production testing. Eni operates CI-802 with a 90% stake, with its partner Petroci Holding on 10%.
Eni plans to drill a third and final well in the Baleine area in early 2023, ahead of the target for first oil by the middle of that year.
The Eni and Petroci consortium also participates in five other Cote d'Ivoire deepwater licence blocks: CI-205, CI-501, CI-504, CI-401 and CI-801.