Volume 2, issue #28 - 22-12-1997

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Changes in oil acreage in Gabon

Nov. 14, 1997 Italy's Agip has acquired a 50 % stake plus operatorship in all three oil licences held in Gabon by Occidental Petroleum Corp, making it the operator with the biggest acreage there.
This gave Agip operatorship of over 19 % of currently allocated acreage in Gabon, the sources told.
"It looks like Agip are trying to build a core presence in Gabon," said an analyst.The offshore licences at M'polo, Chaillu Marin, and Meboun Marin were in water depths of approximately 200 to 2,000 metres.
The government sources said that Elf-Gabon, which has dominated Gabon's oil industry since activity began in 1935, will hold under 18 % of the acreage as operator.Elf-Gabon will remain the largest title holder of acreage with around 9.9 %, compared to Agip's 9.7 %. U.S. independent Vanco holds 8.9 %, Canada's Chauvco Resources Ltd 8.6 %.
Latham said 4 exploration wells already drilled on the 3 blocks, while Occidental still had a 100 % stake in each, had been dry holes. Elf Gabon's share of oil produced in Gabon has gradually declined in recent years.It fell to 7.2 million tonnes of Gabon's total 18.2 million tonne output in 1996 from 7.3 million out of 18.1 million in 1995, according to a company document.
Sources in Gabon said they expected total oil output in Gabon to be around 100,000 tonnes less by the end of this year at around 18.1 million tonnes.Gabon's oil output is dominated by the giant onshore Rabi field which official statistics say produced 10.3 million tonnes in 1996 (around 200,000 bpd.)Latham said that the nature of the field would probably result in a sharp fall from the year 2000 to less than 100,000 bpd by 2004.He added that three new oil strikes since August by Elf Gabon, Shell Gabon and USX-Marathon Group's Marathon Petroleum Gabon, would probably not be enough to stem a decline from about the year 2000. He said that all the new fields held by small independents could add 50,000 to 100,000 bpd in the next 5 years.
Elf Gabon's General Manager Jean-Pierre Cordier this monthattributed his company's declining share to natural declines in existing fields and to the fact that many of the company's interests in marginal fields were being bought up by smaller independent oil companies in a better position to manage them.
"Elf have made all these minor oil discoveries that the independents are snapping at their heels for, and it suits the Gabonese to have half a dozen new operators bringing in, say, 10,000 bpd each," Latham said. He said parent company Elf Aquitaine was also giving a greater priority to other projects in West Africa.
Elf announced this year that an exploration well in 1,300 metres of water tested 16,000 bpd from Angola's Dalia field, which it operates, and said this field held recoverable reserves in excess of 700 million barrels.