BW Energy Leads Gabon’s Upstream Revival with Drilling of Hibiscus Well

BW Energy Leads Gabon’s Upstream Revival with Drilling of Hibiscus Well

Following years of anticipation, Oslo-listed E&P company BW Energy drilled the first of several wells last Monday that will constitute Phase 1 of its Hibiscus/Ruche development at its offshore Dussafu asset in Gabon. Drilling had started on the DHIBM-3H well in January 2023 and initial results for drain length and reservoir properties encouragingly match BW’s expectations. The company hopes to see first oil extracted from the well later this month, which could represent a turning point for Gabon’s oil industry.

With Gabon’s fields maturing and a lack of investment in new exploration, the news couldn’t have come at a better time, coinciding with the government’s drive to ramp up production and OPEC’s announcement of Saudi-led production cuts. It is hoped that the six horizontal wells that BW Energy intends to drill in the first phase of the project – four in the Hibiscus field and another two in the neighboring Ruche 1 field – will yield around 30,000 barrels per day of output, out of an estimated reserve of 70.2 million barrels.

After its oil output peaked in 1996, Gabon saw production fall steadily with no new exploration contracts signed between 2014 and 2019, negatively impacting government revenues, 80% of which are