Western Geophysical plans seismic survey off Equatorial Guinea.

Seismic company Western Geophysical has signed an agreement with Equatorial Guinea for a major speculative seismic survey in deep water off its shores, a spokesman said. "The seismic data will cover open acreage in deepwater blocks to be available during the licensing round scheduled for the fourth quarter of 1998," he said.
The spokesman said one of Western Geophysical's two-dimensional marine seismic vessels would begin data acquisitioning during the fourth quarter of 1997.
"The data will cover the offshore Bioko (island) and Rio Muni (mainland) areas of Equatorial Guinea, neither of which has been fully explored," he said.
The spokesman said the Rio Muni area had a rock structure similar to Gabon to the south, and Cameroon to the North. The Bioko basin lies just to the south of the Niger delta, which has proven source and reservoir rocks.
Oil company interest in Equatorial Guinea sharpened after recent finds, the most significant of which is the Zafiro field, in which United Meridian Corp (UMC) has a 25 % stake, and Mobil has a 75 % stake.
Mobil says Zafiro now produces about 50,000 bpd and the company expects some 80,000 by the year's end.