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 GABON
West Africa
Gabon has been a major oil producer with approximately
half its production originating from onshore and half offshore. However
output has been declining since 1997 and the area is well explored.
Oil originates from buried rift basins, which contain
extensive layers of Cretaceous salt and rich source rocks, overlain in
north Gabon by deltaic deposits from the Ogoue River, and in south Gabon
by deposits from the Congo River.
 Shell
has been the dominant producer onshore and Total
offshore. There is no state oil corporation but the government exercises
control through PSCs and its 25% holding in Elf Gabon and Shell Gabon.
Gabon left OPEC in 1994.
The most significant development in the last few years
was in 2002 when Vaalco Energy brought onstream the 60 mm Bbl Etame
field at 15,000 Bbls per day. Further
marginal offshore oil discoveries have been announced so there remains
potential for new discoveries, particularly as FPSO-type development
options are improved. Onshore some new small developments are also
proceeding although decline has been continuous since the mid 1990s when
Gabon's largest field, Shell's Rabi/Kounga, reached its peak.
The first two deep water wells off West Africa were
drilled in Gabonese waters by Shell. Both were unsuccessful but in 1996
the government began to award deep water blocks. Marathon and Vanco took
licenses in both deep and ultra-deep waters and in December 2000, Shell
Gabon signed a PSC for the Douka Marin and Panga Marin Blocks.
However, the continued release of deep water acreage by
the Gabonese government has not attracted many new entrants.
Gabon’s deep waters do not have the deltaic/turbidite basin geology characteristic of
Equatorial Guinea to the north and Congo Brazzaville and Angola to the
south.
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