CAPITAL: LIBREVILLE
MONETARY UNIT: CFA FRANC
REFINING CAPACITY: 17,300 B/CD
OIL PRODUCTION: 330,900 B/D
OIL RESERVES: 2.5 BILLION BBL
GAS RESERVES: 1.2 TCF

Despite a large number of fields, Gabon faced declining oil production unless drilling increased. Drilling fell to six wells, including only two wildcats, in 1999 from 15 wells in 1998.

An early-2000 forecast by Wood Mackenzie had Gabon's oil output falling in each of the following 10 years from about 300,000 b/d in 1999.

TotalFinaElf operated most of the country's fields, most of them offshore. Gabon's largest onshore field, Shell's Rabi Kounga, discovered in 1985, was averaging 130,000 b/d, about 40% of the country's output.

Marathon Petroleum Gabon LDC began producing 6,000 b/d of oil from Tchatamba West field, in 165 ft of water 15 miles off Gabon. It estimated Tchatamba West to hold 7 million bbl of oil. The oil was commingled with production from Tchatamba Marin and Tchatamba South fields and piped to an FPSO vessel on Tchatamba Marin field. The three fields averaged 40,000 b/d late in the year.

PanAfrican Energy, formerly Ocelot, planned to drill two wells at Obangue onshore field, which averaged 1,250 b/d in second quarter 2000 and 970 b/d in third quarter. It was to build a $2.2 million, 17 km, 6 in., 6,000 b/d pipeline to an Elf system at Avocette to eliminate barging of oil from Obangue. Two wells were to be drilled in first quarter 2001.

Vaalco Energy Inc., Houston, planned to acquire Western Atlas Afrique Ltd.'s 65% interest in the 760,000-acre Etame block in the Congo basin. Etame had yielded a 3,700 b/d oil discovery drilled by a Vaalco-led consortium in 1998. Vaalco drilled a delineation well in 1999 to establish the field's oil-water contact and had been reprocessing 3D seismic data to better define the accumulation.

Burlington Resources Inc. took its first West African acreage with acquisition for an undisclosed sum of a 25% interest in Agip SPA-operated M'Polo, Chaillu, and Meboun blocks. The blocks total 5.3 million acres. Two wells were due in 2001 and a total of six by mid-2003.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. took 50% interest and operatorship of the Aga* Block, where a 3D seismic survey was planned in early 2001.

Energy Africa Ltd., Cape Town, reported operations in nine African countries in late 2000, including Gabon. The company held interests in the Azobe, Kari, Nziembou, and Ofoubou-Ankani licenses. It expected two exploration wells on Kari and one at Ofoubou by first half 2001 and one well at Azobe in second half 2001. It also said wells were scheduled by mid-2001 on the Chaillu, Etame, Mpolo, and Tolo blocks, on which it held options to acquire interests.