FPSO refurbishment coming soon to prolong oil production to 2038 or longer

Houston-based Vaalco Energy has confirmed a timeline for the departure of a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel, operated by Canadian Natural Resources International (CNRI), from a deepwater oil field off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire, Africa. This FPSO unit will undergo a revamp in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to extend the production from the field, possibly beyond 2038. 

Following discussions with the owner of Svenska Petroleum Exploration regarding a debt-free corporate transaction, Vaalco entered into a sales and purchase agreement with Petroswede and acquired the Swedish player, whose primary asset is a 27.39% interest in the deepwater producing Baobab field in Block CI-40 offshore Côte d’Ivoire.

During its 20-year production history, 24 production wells and five injection wells were drilled at the field, which is operated by CNRL (57.61% working interest), while the national oil company (NOC), Petroci Holding (15%), is another partner in this project. The Baobab field is located 30 kilometers off the coast of Cote d’Ivoire in water depths ranging from 900 to 1,300 meters and consists of five distinguishable reservoir units in Middle to Late Albian sequences.

After it was discovered in March 2001 with the Baobab 1X well, a second well, the Baobab 2X, was drilled in 2002 to appraise the field. The commercial production from the field began in August 2005. There have been four drilling campaigns at Baobab to date, with the most recent including four production wells and two water injection wells tied back to four subsea manifolds connected to the FPSO Baobab Ivoirien MV10, owned and operated by MODEC.

The cumulative gross production from the field has been about 150 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), a portion of the estimated over one billion barrels of oil equivalent volumes initially in place. The planned dry-docking and upgrading of the FPSO this year is anticipated to enable production growth from the 2026 drilling program and future drilling campaigns.

According to Vaalco, the FPSO Baobab Ivoirien MV10 ceased hydrocarbon production as scheduled on January 31, 2025. As a result, the final lifting of crude oil from the unit is set to take place on or around February 6, 2025. The company claims that the project team has begun mobilization efforts, deploying the necessary workforce support vessels and equipment to facilitate the safe disconnection of the FPSO.

Upon departure from the field, the vessel is planned to be wet towed to the shipyards in Dubai for refurbishment on March 24, 2025. The FPSO dry dock refurbishment project is seen as a necessary step to prolong the field’s producing life, enabling production to go on until 2038 or even longer.

George Maxwell, Vaalco’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), commented: “We are pleased with the progress of this critical project and remain committed to ensuring a smooth and efficient transition for the FPSO disconnection and refurbishment which we expect, when complete, will allow production to continue until at least 2038, subject to the final regulatory approvals on the license extension and further investment.

“This milestone represents another step forward in delivering on our strategic objectives while maintaining the highest standards of safety and operational excellence. We have already been paid back 1.8×1 our initial net investment in Côte d’Ivoire in the eight months since closing and the performance of the asset has tracked well ahead of our expectations at the time of the acquisition.”

In the meantime, Vaalco is also working on upping the production ante at other projects in Africa. To this end, the firm hired a jack-up rig from Borr Drilling for its 2025/2026 drilling program off the coast of Gabon.

The U.S. player confirmed the contract with Borr Drilling a day after the rig owner disclosed a new assignment for the Norve jack-up rig with an undisclosed company it described as a repeat customer.