(Ecofin Agency) - VAALCO Energy has announced that it has finalized the acquisition of a further 3.23% participating interest in the Etame Marin Permit located offshore of the Republic of Gabon from Sojitz Etame Limited. The transaction, which had an effective date of August 1, 2016, will boost VAALCO’s net production by about 11% post-closing and will increase its participating interest to 33.58%.

VAALCO operates the fields in the Etame Marin block which cover around 28,700 gross acres in shallow water. Before the acquisition, the company owned a 30.35% participating interest in the block. Presently, there are four production platforms and nine wells producing in the concession, including three subsea well tiebacks. Production from the fields currently stands at about 13,500 barrels of oil per day and over 94 million barrels of oil have been produced since production started in 2002.

“We are very pleased to have closed our transaction with Sojitz and increased our participating interest in our flagship producing asset in offshore Gabon to 33.58%. It immediately increases our production in a field we know extremely well and enhances our option value due to the significant upside potential remaining. At Etame, we have identified 21 low risk development and step-out drilling opportunities with about 65 million barrels of gross unrisked recoverable contingent resources. We are working with our partners on a schedule to develop these opportunities as soon as practical. We are also very pleased to have initiated the work over program at Avouma and hope to restore production at Avouma before year end,” Cary Bounds, VAALCO’s Chief Operating Officer and Interim CEO, said.

Anita Fatunji