CAPITAL: MALABO

MONETARY UNIT: CFA FRANC

REFINING CAPACITY: N/A

PRODUCTION: 85,000 B/D

OIL/CONDENSATE RESERVES:

12 MILLION BBL

NATURAL GAS RESERVES: 1.3 TCF

A licensing round of 30 offshore blocks early in 1999 expired without offers due to low oil prices and government disorganization.

The government had given Mobil and Elf preferential rights to evaluate some of the blocks.

Momentum received a boost in September when Triton Energy announced a major oil discovery on Block G, the first find in the Rio Muni basin. Mbini-1 flowed 12,401 b/d of 30! gravity oil from a 160 ft interval in a single zone. Analysis of wireline logs and core data indicated a 742 ft gross oil column with 314 ft of net oil-bearing pay in four zones. The well was drilled to 9,700 ft in 2,200 ft of water 22 miles off Rio Muni.

The discovery is about 200 miles southeast of Zafiro oil and gas field, which lies west of Bioko Island and near the marine border with Nigeria. Triton said the discovery well could make 20,000 b/d on completion. It estimated reserves at as much as 500 million bbl.

Discovery of the field, named La Ceiba (silk tree), proved the existence of a working hydrocarbon system in the basin and opened what may prove to be a significant offshore hydrocarbon fairway, Triton said.

Triton was starting a 1,150 sq mile 3D seismic survey to delineate the field and other prospects.

Interests in blocks G and F were Triton 85% and Petronas?s majority-held Energy Africa Ltd. 15%.

Mobil-Ocean Energy?s Topacio field, a satellite of Zafiro field, was the only deep-water field on production off West Africa in early 1999. Topacio produces through a sub-sea template tied back to the Zafiro floating production, storage, and offloading vessel in northwestern Block B, which borders Nigerian blocks OPL 223, 100, and 224.

Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc. was to become operator of sprawling 650,000-acre Block C south of Zafiro field under an agreement with Ocean Energy Inc., Houston, and SK Corp., Seoul. The government had approved the transaction.

Mobil would earn 47% interest in the block by drilling an exploratory well on the Ostra prospect in eastern Block C based on existing seismic data. The agreement also called for more seismic work on the deepwater part of the block with a second exploratory well contemplated in 2001. Block C interests were Mobil 47%, Ocean Energy 37.6%, SK 9.4%, and the government 6%.

CMS Oil & Gas Co. let a contract for pipelines and platforms related to Alba gas-condensate field northwest of Bioko Island. Alba was to yield 250 MMcfd of gas and condensate starting in first quarter 2000. The field?s gas would fuel several industrial plants on the island.