Murphy to assess Paon oil discovery following award of offshore Côte d’Ivoire PSCs

Aug. 3, 2023
Murphy Oil has signed production sharing contracts giving it operated interests in five deepwater blocks in the Tano Basin offshore Côte d’Ivoire.

Offshore staff

EL DORADO, Ark  Murphy Oil has signed production sharing contracts (PSCs) giving it operated interests in five deepwater blocks in the Tano Basin offshore Côte d’Ivoire.

Initially the company will have a 90% stake in four of the blocks and 85% in the fifth. State-owned Société Nationale d’Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d’Ivoire (PETROCI) holds the balance in each case.

Block CI-103 includes Anadarko’s 2012 Paon oil discovery, which underwent appraisal with multiple wells. The PSC carries a commitment to prepare and submit a viable field development plan for Paon by the end of 2025.

Murphy also has secured approval from Vietnam’s government for its development plan for the Lac Da Vang Field in Block 15-1/05 in the offshore Cuu Long Basin, where it has a 40% operated interest. The other partners are PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corp and SK Earthon Co.

Final review and sanction are anticipated in late 2023.

In the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM), the company, as operator of its subsidiary MP Gulf of Mexico LLC, has plugged and abandoned the Chinook #7 exploration well in Walker Ridge 425, which encountered non-commercial hydrocarbons.

Murphy’s Longclaw #1 discovery delivered about 62 ft of net oil pay and is undergoing further evaluation.

Recently the company gained five exploration blocks under the GoM Federal Lease Sale 259, with an average working interest of 90%.

08.03.2023