Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter Eni has reported a "major" oil discovery offshore Cote d'Ivoire, which it is touting as the West African country's first commercial find in 20 years. The Italian company says its preliminary estimate of the Baleine discovery indicates a potential 1.5 billion-2 billion bbl of oil in place and 1.8 Tcf-2.4 Tcf of associated gas. It plans to fast-track development work to accelerate the production of first oil, as it has done in Angola and elsewhere (IOD Aug.26'21). An estimate of "oil in place" typically overstates the amount of oil that can be recovered from a field. Equinor estimates, for example, that it can recover 50% of the oil in place at fields offshore Norway but hopes to push that number to 60%. It puts the worldwide industry average recovery rate at 35%. The Baleine-1 exploration well was drilled in 1,200 meters of water about 60 km off the coast of Cote d'Ivoire. Eni said it will now test the upside potential of the sedimentary structure, which lies on Block CI-101 and extends into the adjacent Block CI-802. Eni operates five blocks in Cote d'Ivoire -- CI-101, CI-205, CI-501, CI-504 and CI-802. . Cote d’Ivoire is the Cinderella of West Africa's oil producers, with total production of 34,000 b/d. Output has declined in recent years, having peaked at 66,000 b/d in 2009.
