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Speaking during a meeting of the International importation of refined petroleum products and
Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, he said: other products like rice, sugar and wheat, we
“With Dangote Refinery coming up with the spend close to about 40% of the foreign exchange
650,000 barrel per day, hopefully by the end of that is needed to fund imports into Nigeria … If
the year, that will reduce the demand for foreign we find, for instance, a situation whereby around
exchange that normally will go for the importa- the end of this year we no longer need foreign
tion of petroleum products.” exchange to import petroleum product, rice or
He added: “I have also said that, between the maize, I believe that the demand will drop.” ™

VAALCO completes Avouma 3H-ST

well at Etame Marin offshore block

GABON VAALCO Energy (US) reported on Tuesday, the Dentale layer, which has been found to be
April 26 that it had completed and launched productive in other sections of the Etame Marin
production at Avouma 3H-ST, a sidetrack devel- licence area, the company said in its statement.
opment well at Avouma, the Etame Marin block George Maxwell, the company’s CEO, hailed
offshore Gabon. the outcome of the drilling programme. “We are
In a statement, the company said that the very excited with the initial results from another
well was now yielding oil at the rate of about highly successful development well at Etame,”
3,100 barrels per day. It noted that this result he said. “The initial rates of 3,100 gross [bpd]
was higher than originally anticipated and are exceeding our initial internal estimates and
reported that 1,586 bpd of the total was net rev- demonstrate the potential of this new extension
enue interest (NRI) to VAALCO, or 1,823 bpd reservoir at Avouma. We have now brought
to VAALCO in line with its equity stake in the online two successful development wells in 2022
Etame Marin project. with very strong initial flow rates at an oppor-
It also described the drilling of Avouma tune time, with sustained higher Brent pricing.”
3H-ST as a success, saying that the well had con- VAALCO is the operator of Etame Marin
firmed the extension of the Avouma reservoir in and has a 58.8% stake in the block.
another direction. This should help increase the The US-based company has been using the
total volume of crude recovered from the field Petróleo Nautipa, a floating production, stor-
and may also permit the drilling of further wells age and off-loading (FPSO) unit owned by BW
at Avouma, it said. Offshore (Norway), to support development at
VAALCO is now focusing on the next well in the field. Rather than renew its 20-year charter
its drilling programme – namely, ETBSM 1HB- for the FPSO, which is due to expire in Septem-
ST. This well will be spudded from the Avouma ber of this year, VAALCO has arranged to hire
platform, as Avouma 3H-ST was. It will target a floating storage and off-loading (FSO) vessel
the Gamba reservoir and will serve to test the for the project from Omni Offshore Terminals
deeper Dentale formation at the South Tchibala (Singapore). The FSO is due to arrive at Etame
field. The new well may be able to produce from Marin in the third quarter of this year. ™

The FPSO’s charter is due to expire in September (Image: BW Offshore)

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