CAPITAL: Abidjan

MONETARY UNIT: CFA franc

REFINING CAPACITY: 73,190 b/cd

OIL PRODUCTION: 29,000 b/d

OIL RESERVES: 100 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 1 tcf

Offshore operators hoped to supply hydrocarbons for the Ivory Coast government`s efforts to expand natural gas use and integrate natural gas and power grids.

One operator reckoned that gas demand could easily reach 150 MMcfd by 2000. Abidjan was consuming about 64 MMcfd by mid-1997.

United Meridian Corp., Houston, held interests in five blocks off Ivory Coast totaling 2.28 million acres. Three of the blocks have limited onshore coverage.

UMC was expected to merge by March 1998 with Ocean Energy Inc., Baton Rouge, La. The new company was to be named Ocean Energy Inc.

Ocean-UMC brought on new wells in Lion oil and Panthere gas fields, the country`s only producing fields, on Block CI-11 off western Ivory Coast. Production reached close to 20,000 b/d and 50-100 MMcfd in late 1997.

Near yearend 1997 an Abidjan LPG plant that would process 75 MMcfd of gas from Block CI-11 and eventually Block CI-01 off eastern Ivory Coast was starting up. Output was to be 1,550 b/d of liquids.

Ocean-UMC was starting up an 8 in. crude oil pipeline from Lion field to Abidjan and a fourth, D production platform at yearend. The pipeline was to eliminate barging and trucking costs of $7 million/year.

Ocean-UMC was still exploring 1.1 million acre Block CI-01 off eastern Ivory Coast along the Ghana border. It contains Ibex, Eland, and Kudu gas/condensate fields, which had never produced. The company`s Kudu 1 cut 75 ft of net pay and flowed 28 MMcfd of gas and 740 b/d of condensate from 7,300 ft.

Just offshore and between Block CI-01 and Abidjan, Ocean-UMC`s Gazelle wildcat on Block CI-02 flowed 32 MMcfd and 858 b/d of condensate. The company believes that a trend that extends for many miles, possibly tying in with Kudu field, and may be productive from Cenomanian sands.

Ocean-UMC entered facilities design and fabrication looking towards initial sales to Ivory Coast and Ghana from this area by 1999. It was also gathering and interpreting large amounts of seismic data from the deepwater portions of Blocks CI-105, CI-11, and CI-01.

Ocean-UMC was competing with Chevron, which is vying to supply Ghana gas from its Escravos project in Nigeria.

Apache Corp., Houston, and partners signed a 10-year take-or-pay contract to supply about 200 bcf of natural gas starting in 1999 to an Abidjan power plant. The contract establishes commercial viability of Foxtrot gas field in Block C-27 off Ivory Coast.

Three wells flowed a combined 115 MMcfd of gas and 1,350 b/d of condensate in the early 1980s. Reserves are estimated at 600 bcf. The take-or-pay commitment rises to 50 MMcfd from 30 MMcfd after 2 years. Participants are Apache and Saur Energi each 24%, state Petroci 40%, and Électricité de France 12%.

Ranger Oil signed a production sharing pact for 793 sq km Block CI-102 just south of Abidjan, most of which lies in less than 200 m of water between inactive Espoir and Belier oil fields.

Ranger also took a 24% interest and became operator of Block CI-26, containing Espoir field with an estimated 70 million bbl of oil and 200 bcf of gas. A Ranger-led group expected to decide in 1998 whether to proceed with a $250 million redevelopment of the field, idled in 1988.

Santa Fe Energy Resources Inc., Houston, was to start drilling in 1998 on Block CI-24, using 3D seismic data collected by Petroci.