Ivory Coast oil field to begin production later this year
Ivory Coast’s Baleine field will begin production in the second half of 2023
MAURITANIA: Production from Ivory Coast’s highly anticipated Baleine oil field is expected in 2023. Owned by a consortium comprising ENI, an Italian multinational oil and gas company, and Petroci, the Ivorian national oil company, the consortium jointly operates and manages the field for exploration, development, and production of hydrocarbons in the area.
The initial phase, slated to commence in 2023, will account for 15% of the field’s total production, while the subsequent phase is expected to span 30 years. Recent drilling in Baleine E1X has unveiled even greater reserves of oil and gas in the adjacent block, elevating the total estimated quantities to approximately 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 3,300 billion cubic feet of gas, surpassing earlier projections by a remarkable 25%.
According to Ivorian authorities, an Floating Storage Production and Offloading (FPSO vessel named Baleine departed from Dubai on April 6 to the Ivory Coast to begin production, eighteen months after its commercial discovery. The vessel has a processing capacity of 15,000 barrels/day (bbls/d) of crude oil, a storage capacity of 650,000 bbls, an unloading capacity of 520,000 bbls, treatment of produced water 7,600 bbls/d and a draft of 5,5m.
Ivory Coast’s Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, traveled to Dubai to observe the tradition of blessing the ship before its launch where= he underscored the rapid progress of the Baleine project which has necessitated substantial investment into the country including the drilling of three production wells in the field that are currently nearing completion. Furthermore, an 80 km hydrocarbon transport pipeline has been installed, and the FPSO has been refurbished to meet operational requirements.
Sangafowa Coulibaly encouraged major industry players to explore the vast potential of Ivory Coast’s sedimentary basin, as he proclaimed that there are numerous other “Baleines” yet to be discovered in the country.
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