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Vaalco Energy has agreed to buy the 3.23% stake in the Etame Marin permit owned by Japan’s Sojitz. This acquisition is expected to boost Vaalco’s net production by nearly 11% with effect from 1 August. Vaalco will fund the acquisition with cash and an additional $5m of loan capacity available under a new term loan agreement announced in early July with the International Finance Corporation. Vaalco chief executive Steve Guidry said the company believed the block had significant upside potential remaining. “We have identified at least 17 future drilling opportunities we can pursue when prices recover that we estimate could include about 65m barrels of gross unrisked recoverable contingent resources,” he said.

CGG has early data available from more than 25,000km2 of new 3D multi-client seismic acquired to support Gabon’s 11th licensing round. CGG said a fast-track pre-stack time-migrated dataset for the survey over available and licensed blocks in the South Basin was available, along with sample pre-stack depth reverse time-migrated (RTM) data in one area. The final RTM for the whole of the survey area will be available later this summer.

US independent Vaalco Energy has postponed routine maintenance work on its Etame Marin facilities until 2017 to save cash. The company said a planned maintenance turnaround for the Etame field was completed in February. Inspections showed no need for further maintenance “and all facilities were deemed to be in good operating condition. As a result, the company will defer its planned September 2016 turnaround until 2017,” Vaalco said.

The government has presented a bill to parliament that would remove the monopoly of power and water utility Société d’Energie et d’Eau du Gabon (SEEG) and open up both sectors to private investment.France’s Veolia, which owns 51% of SEEG, signed a 20-year concession contract in 1997 with the Gabonese state, which owns the other 49%.

After a three-year interruption, construction has resumed at a 36MW hydropower dam at the FE2 falls on the Okano River in Woleu-Ntem province. Engineers of the China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) told energy and water resources minister Guy Bertrand Mapangou during a 14 April site visit that the CFA23bn ($40m) scheme would be completed within three years.

Lagos-based Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has announced plans to invest up to $140m in the Gabon Special Economic Zone (GSEZ). The GSEZ, created in 2010 to accelerate Gabon’s economic diversification, is a joint venture vehicle between the government and Singapore agri-business company Olam International. The venture has a portfolio of infrastructure projects spanning a variety of sectors, including a mineral terminal, a general logistics terminal, and other special infrastructure projects. GSEZ also owns and operates the Nkok Special Economic Zone and the Port Gentil Special Economic Zone. The GSEZ projects form part of the government’s Emerging Gabon Strategy

The Direction Générale des Hydrocarbures (DGH) has pushed back the deadline for submitting bids for Gabon’s 11th licensing round to 29 April from 31 March. The round was launched in Cape Town on 27 October, offering five deep-water blocks in the southern offshore. The DGH said the postponement was a response to current market conditions and would give companies an extra month “to evaluate the anticipated update to the fiscal terms by the DGH due to be announced in the first week of April 2016”.

AIIM Hydroneo announced on 7 March that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the government in January to develop, finance, build and operate several hydroelectric power plants in Gabon. AIIM Hydroneo is a 50:50 joint venture between African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) and Hydroneo Afrique, a subsidiary of France’s Mecamidi, established to develop a pipeline of small and medium hydroelectric projects in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea and Mozambique. The pipeline is expected to deliver power plants with combined capacity of 200MW and worth $500m over the next five years.

US independent Vaalco Energy has dropped plans for further drilling offshore Gabon this year and terminated the contract for the Transocean Constellation II jack-up rig five months early. Vaalco chief executive Steve Guidry said the company had begun demobilising the rig on 25 January. “We are pleased with the overall results we achieved with our 2015 drilling programme as we reversed the decline in our production and meaningfully increased our volumes. Due to the continued sharp decline in oil prices we have determined additional drilling to be uneconomic.

Gabon has launched its 11th licensing round, offering five deep-water blocks in the southern offshore. The round was launched on 27 October in Cape Town by hydrocarbons minister Etienne Ngoubou, and roadshows will be held in Libreville, Paris, Houston and Singapore in November and December. Bids are to be submitted between 15 February and 31 March. The round follows the award of nine deep-water blocks last year and is again being promoted by CGG, which has acquired over 25,000km2 of new 3D multi-client seismic offshore southern Gabon over the five open blocks and adjacent areas licensed in 2014.

Tullow Oil has regained its 7.5% stake in the Onal Complex fields and the Ezanga Block (formerly Omoueyi) following negotiations with the government of Gabon. Tullow has been unable to book production or revenues from the fields since H1 2014, while it negotiated a new licence agreement. The licence has been extended to 2034 and Tullow has gained access to two small discoveries made in the Ezanga Block in 2014. The effective date of the new licence will be 1 August 2015.

Houston-based Vaalco Energy on 16 September announced the start of production from the North Tchibala 1-H well, marking the first offshore output from the Dentale reservoir. The well, drilled to a total depth of 3,400 metres, is the second to be drilled and placed on production at Vaalco’s new Southeast Etame/North Tchibala (SEENT) platform on the Etame Marin permit. The well was brought on line at a rate of just over 3,000 b/d, and the Transocean Constellation II jackup rig is moving to the Avouma/South Tchibala platform to conduct workover operations.

Houston-based Vaalco Energy said on 20 July the Southeast Etame 2-H well had been brought on line at a rate of 3,400 b/d. The well is the first to be drilled and placed on production at the new Southeast Etame/North Tchibala (SEENT) platform (AE 287/12). The well was drilled to a depth of 4,270 metres, targeting a new reservoir discovered in 2010 in the Gamba formation. The Transocean Constellation II jack-up rig has now been moved to a second slot on the same platform to drill the North Tchibala 1-H well targeting the Dentale formation in another previously unproduced field, North Tchibala.

France’s Veolia, the main shareholder in Société d’Énergie et d’Eau du Gabon (Seeg), has started negotiations with the government for an extension of its concession contract, which expires in 2017. Under the contract, signed in 1997, Seeg has a monopoly of power transmission and distribution and is the main player in generation.The last round of negotiations took place in Libreville on 20 May between energy and water resources minister Désiré Guedon and Seeg board chairman Patrice Fonlladosa. Seeg’s turnover rose by 6.7% in 2014, from CFAF182bn ($309.4m) to CFAF195bn, and the company reported a CFAF6.2bn profit.

India’s Su-Kam Power Systems expects to begin installing in June the first of 40,000 solar power systems for rural households under a contract from the government, brand manager Kanav Sachdev told African Energy on 7 May. The company was awarded a five-year contract in January worth around $25m to supply, install and service 120W direct current (DC) systems to provide electricity for three lights and a fan per house. The systems, which are manufactured by Su-Kam, and will be installed over a six-month period, comprise a 120W rooftop solar panel, solar charge controller, inverter and a battery charger.