VAALCO acquires additional working interest in Gabon’s Etame Marin Permit

HOUSTON -- VAALCO Energy has signed a purchase and sale agreement to acquire an additional 3.23% participating interest in the Etame Marin Permit, offshore of the Republic of Gabon, from Sojitz Etame Limited, which represents the full interest owned by Sojitz in the concession. The transaction has an effective date of Aug. 1, 2016.

VAALCO is operator of and, prior to the acquisition, owned a 30.35% participating interest (28.1% working interest) in the fields in the Etame Marin Block, which encompasses approximately 28,700 gross acres in shallow water.

There are four production platforms and nine wells producing in the concession, including three subsea well tiebacks. Production from the fields averaged about 19,000 bopd in the second quarter of 2016 and over 93 MMbbl of oil have been produced since production commenced in 2002. This acquisition is expected to boost VAALCO’s net production by nearly 11%, effective as of Aug. 1.

The transaction is expected to close within 90 days, subject to customary closing conditions.

Steve Guidry, VAALCO’s CEO, said, “We are very pleased to increase our participating interest in our flagship producing asset in offshore Gabon to 33.58%. VAALCO, operator of the Etame Marin Block, drilled the first discovery in the field in 1997, so our technical team knows the area extremely well. We believe it has significant upside potential remaining. We have identified at least 17 future drilling opportunities we can pursue when prices recover that we estimate could include about 65 MMbbl of gross unrisked recoverable contingent resources.”