CAPITAL: BRAZZAVILLE
MONETARY UNIT: CFA FRANC
REFINING CAPACITY: 21,000 B/CD
OIL PRODUCTION: 265,000 B/D
OIL RESERVES: 1.5 BILLION BBL
GAS RESERVES: 3.2 TCF

International financial institutions including International Monetary Fund and the World Bank began talks in April 2000 for new humanitarian and recovery plans following years of civil war.

Congo in return was to improve fiscal transparency and improve financial management. The program hiked Congo's debt to $5.4 billion but was still on track late in the year.

Oil production climbed during the year from a 1999 average of 240,000 b/d as TotalFinaElf's local subsidiary started up Tchibeli field in 2000 and Kombi and Likalala fields in 1999. Each had reserves of 25-30 million bbl.

A group that included Maurel & Prom, Paris, and Heritage Oil Corp., Calgary, brought Kouakouala onshore field on line during the year. The field had produced more than 70,000 bbl of oil by early October, Heritage said. The companies mobilized a rig that was to drill two Kouakouala appraisal-development wells and an exploration well on the Kouilou permit 15 km northwest along trend from Kouakouala.

CMS Energy Corp. and Nuevo Energy Co. budgeted funds for drilling horizontal wells in 2001 in continued development of Yombo offshore field.

Isramco Inc., Houston, abandoned Tilapia Land-1 to 6,500 ft MD after a production test. The directional well was intended to reach the same sandstone reservoir that flowed 2,000 b/d of oil at Elf's Tilapia-1 well just offshore in the mid-1990s.

Numerous block interests changed hands during the year as companies positioned themselves for greater activity, mainly in deepwater areas.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. took a 37.5% interest and operatorship in the Marine IX block, where a deepwater wildcat was planned in 2001. Sasol Ltd. offered to divest its interest in Marine Block X. Chevron Congo acquired a 15% interest from Elf in the Mer Profonde Sud deepwater block adjacent to Angola-Cabinda Block 14 and Congo's Haute Mer Permit.