- Gabon produces around 200,000 barrels per day. Tigre’s project success could double Gabon’s production.
- The report said it would need to find at least 120 million barrels of oil, based on an $83 per barrel Brent price.
According to S&P, Gabon produces around 200,000 barrels per day. Tigre’s project success could double Gabon’s production. CNOOC Ltd began drilling the Tigre well offshore Gabon in January with the potential to derisk prospects in the country’s deepwater. CNOOC contracted the Stena IceMax for two wells off Gabon this year. The rig arrived in January and began drilling shortly thereafter. Stena Drilling has said the rig would be in work for CNOOC for around 90 days.
A note from S&P Global Commodity Insights noted that the Tigre 1 targeted the pre-salt Gamba sandstones of the Aptian age in the BC9 block. The analysis said CNOOC targeted oil in the four-way closure, with a recoverable resource potential of up to 1.4 billion barrels. The Chinese company drilled the Leopard well in BCD10, with Shell, in 2014. Leopard found gas and has not progressed despite some talk of floating LNG (FLNG).
Success at Tigre could see CNOOC expand in Gabon, S&P said. The report said it would need to find at least 120 million barrels of oil, based on an $83 per barrel Brent price. A lower price of $58 per barrel would mean CNOOC needs to find at least 300mn barrels. S&P reported that given the BC9 contract dates from 2007, licence terms are more attractive than those in later years. It calculated that NPV is around 20% higher from this licence than current fiscal terms.