Côte d’Ivoire: Total and ENI invest in oil exploration

par Jacques Leroueil

The majors Total and ENI, which are the auctioneers of four offshore blocks, will invest $185 million to explore these oil concessions.

Present Monday at the opening in Yamoussoukro of a seminar entitled « State of play and prospects of the oil and energy sectors », the Ivorian Minister of Oil, Energy and Renewable Energies, Abdourahmane Cissé, confirmed the conclusion of « the promotion of oil blocks with the signing of four new production sharing contracts with two oil majors, Total E&P and ENI, for a minimum cumulative investment of 185 million dollars ». In detail, and according to the information provided, the French group Total - which controls the CI-705 and CI-706 blocks - will assume $90 million in financial investment while its Italian counterpart ENI, which operates the CI-501 and CI-504 blocks, will commit $95 million. ENI and Total will hold 90% of the shares in each of the blocks awarded to them, and the Ivorian public oil company, PETROCI (Société nationale d’opérations pétrolières de Côte d’Ivoire), will control the rest.
This announcement confirms the Ivorian authorities’ determination to promote the emergence of a strong hydrocarbon industry. Since the first campaigns to promote its sedimentary basin - launched in 2012 - and the revision of its oil code in 2015, Côte d’Ivoire has sought to attract new operators through production sharing contracts. With some success: in addition to Total and ENI, leading companies such as Kosmos Energy, Tullow Oil and BP are interested in the Ivorian potential. Production, mainly offshore, remains modest at 35,000 barrels/day (compared to 200,000 barrels/day in neighbouring Ghana). This volume is still far from the government’s stated ambitions, which is counting on a production of 100,000 barrels/day.

Côte d’Ivoire, a small inch of African oil production