Vaalco Spuds First Well In Gabon Drilling Campaign

Houston-based Vaalco Energy has started its 2021/2022 drilling campaign with the spud of the first well on the Etame field offshore Gabon.

Vaalco’s 2021/2022 drilling campaign off Gabon started with the spud of the Etame 8H-ST well. This is supposed to be the first well in a four-well campaign.

Under a drilling contract announced by Vaalco in early summer, a jack-up rig provided by Borr Drilling was recently deployed to the Etame platform. The contract for the rig is for two development wells and two appraisal wellbores with options for additional wells.

The rig started activities on the Etame 8H-ST development well, expected to be completed in January, while production is expected to start sometime later in the first quarter of 2022. The sidetrack of an existing well is targeting existing Gamba hydrocarbons in the Etame field that have not previously been produced by prior wells.

It is worth noting that the name of the rig was not disclosed when the contract was announced. But, according to the latest fleet status report from Borr Drilling, the jack-up rig hired by Vaalco is the Norve rig. The contract is supposed to last from December 2021 to April 2022.

“Enhancing our production, reducing our costs, and extending the economic life at Etame has been the driving force for Vaalco’s continued success. This summer we secured a jack-up rig for our 2021/2022 drilling campaign and began drilling our first well, the Etame 8H-ST, this week. We believe that executing another successful drilling campaign to add material production and reserves will significantly improve our size and scale, further enhancing our ability to execute on our accretive future growth initiatives,” George Maxwell, Vaalco’s Chief Executive Officer, said.

“The objective of the drilling campaign is to increase production by 7,000 to 8,000 barrels of oil per day gross, which would have a material impact on Vaalco’s net production and cash flow given its 63.6 percent interest in the license. We are confident we can achieve these objectives given our drilling track record at Etame. We are excited to get our next drilling campaign underway and will continue to provide updates throughout the program,” he added.

Vaalco has already made efforts to add more crude production at the Etame field via two well workovers that were completed in November. The company also added more interest in the field by acquiring Sasol’s stake in the field earlier in 2021. Vaalco’s partners in the field are Addax Petroleum and PetroEnergy.

It is also worth mentioning that the Etame partners agreed to hire the Cap Diamant crude tanker as an FSO on the field. World Carrier Offshore Services will provide the FSO in September 2022 to replace the FPSO Petroleo Nautipa once the FPSO charter expires.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com