All articles in the Oil patch Sub-Sahara Section:

ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies have announced a discovery each in two separate Angolan Blocks in the last 24 hours.

The encounters were made, incidentally, in the country’s two most prolific acreages, which are also described as “mature”.

ExxonMobil’s discovery in the Vicango Este-01 exploration well was made in ​Block 15, the company’s sole producing block (July 2026 output 139,617Barrels of Oil Per Day BOPD and 447Million standard cubic feet of gas per day MMscf/d). The well was drilled ​to a depth of 940 metres (3,085 feet) “and encountered around 25 metres of high-quality sandstone containing hydrocarbons”, the ​operator and its partners said in a joint statement. Vicango Este-01 is ExxonMobil’s 20th discovery in Block 15, which has produced more than ‌2.7Billion barrels of oil over the past 30 years, the statement said.

TotalEnergies’ discovery was in the Acacia-5 on Block 17, a well that was drilled both for testing a new fault block and appraising existing accumulation. Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, announced the result of drilling on the occasion of the Angola Oil & Gas Conference, TOTAL said in a statement. “First Oil will be achieved only three months after the discovery made in June 2026, through a fast-track development leveraging the available capacity on the Pazflor FPSO. Acacia-5 shall increase Block 17 production by 6,000 barrels per day”.

Block 17 is Angola’s most productive hydrocarbon upstream asset, delivering 309,872BOPD and 420MMscf/d in July 2026.

The announcements of Vicango Este-01 and Acacia-5, follow Chevron’s confirmation of an oil and gas condensate discovery at the 105-4X exploration well in shallow water Block 0 and Sonangol’s successful appraisal of the Katambi discovery in Block 24 in the Benguela Basin

Both announcements were made between July and August 2026.

Chevron’s 105-4X encountered an oil and gas condensate column of more than 600 metres (2,000 feet) in the primary Pinda reservoir, with more than 90 metres (300 feet) of net pay in excellent reservoir quality.

Test results from Katambi-2, “indicated that the well has the potential to produce more than 100MMscf/d, a release from the Angolan National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG), noted. “Initial tests recorded a stabilized production of 41 MMscf/d of gas and 1,160 barrels per day of condensate, with no presence of water or H₂S (hydrogen sulfide), in the  Katambi-2.

Chevron Corporation has confirmed an oil and gas condensate discovery at the 105-4X exploration well in Block 0, offshore Angola. The well, drilled in the prolific Lower Congo Basin, encountered an oil and gas condensate column of more than 600 metres (2,000 feet) in the primary Pinda reservoir, with more than 90 metres (300 feet) of net pay in excellent reservoir quality.

The discovery will be assessed for potential development as a tie-back to Chevron’s existing facilities nearby, enabling a capital-efficient path to production.

The company says the discovery demonstrates the potential of Chevron’s exploration programme in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The well is the third discovery to be announced by operators in Angola in the last three weeks.

“This discovery is another important milestone for Chevron’s over 70-year history in Angola,” said Kevin McLachlan, Vice President, Exploration, Chevron. “By combining high-impact exploration with infrastructure-led opportunities close to existing facilities, we are growing our resource base, creating value, and demonstrating that our strategy is delivering, as well as our continued confidence in Angola’s resource potential.”

Block 0 is operated by Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited (CABGOC), the US major’s Angolan subsidiary,  which holds a 39.2% working interest, and is co-owned by Sonangol E&P (41% working interest), TotalEnergies (10% working interest) and Azule Energy (9.8% working interest).

Beyond Angola, the discovery builds on a successful exploration program in Sub-Saharan Africa where Chevron is currently producing around 300 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day net. Chevron’s existing resource base and active exploration program across the region is positioned to sustain and grow production into the future.

“Chevron has continued to add high-quality exploration acreage to its existing portfolio in the past 12 months in the region. In Nigeria, the company farmed into two offshore blocks last year (PPL2000 and PPL2001) and was awarded a deepwater block PPL2010 in the country’s latest bid round. Chevron has also had three near-field exploration successes – Meji NW-1, South Delta AA and Awodi-07– in Nigeria since late 2024, where it is continuing an ongoing exploration and appraisal programme. In Guinea-Bissau Chevron has secured three blocks including the newly acquired Block 4B which closed on August 13th, 2026, while in Equatorial Guinea it has secured an additional five-block reconnaissance licenses. Chevron is also excited about our ongoing exploration activities in Angola in Blocks 49 & 50, Block 33 and Block 14/23”, the company said.

TGS has commenced a large, two dimensional (2D) Prestack Depth Migration Seismic Reprocessing project in deepwater São Tomé and Príncipe.

The programme, in partnership with the Agência Nacional do Petróleo de São Tomé e Príncipe (ANP-STP), covers a full reprocessing of 14,651 kilometres of 2D seismic data, encompassing four input surveys originally acquired by TGS between 1999 and 2005.

The data was previously reprocessed by TGS in 2014.

“This new project applies a modern, comprehensive workflow, combining advanced pre-processing with velocity model building via Dynamic Matching elastic Full Waveform Inversion (E-DMFWI) and Kirchhoff Prestack Depth Migration (KPSDM), to deliver a significant step-up in imaging quality and interpretation confidence”, TGS says.

This project is supported by industry funding.

“Offshore São Tomé and Príncipe presents a demanding subsurface environment, with volcanic activity, shallow channelization and pervasive mass transport complexes historically limiting the clarity of legacy seismic imaging and depth positioning of targets”, TGS  explains in a statement.

“The 2D PSDM Reprocessing project is designed to resolve these specific challenges, giving operators a clearer, more geologically consistent view of the subsurface in areas where earlier vintages of data have struggled to image”.

A priority subset of lines will be delivered within seven months, with final products for the full dataset expected in the third quarter of 2027, the service provider promises.

Italian contractor Saipem has been awarded a new offshore drilling contract by ENI in Côte d’Ivoire.

The contract is valued at approximately $260 Million.

The drillship Santorini currently in the eastern Mediterranean, will be deployed offshore Côte d’Ivoire for a long-term development drilling campaign on ENI’s Baleine development project, with operations scheduled to begin in early 2027.

“The project includes a firm commitment for an extended drilling programmer, with the potential deployment of the rig in neighbouring countries as well as additional optional periods, thus further enhancing the long-term visibility and continuity of the unit’s future utilization”, Saipem says in a note.

ENI is on course of developing the third phase of the Baleine project, after announcing the approval of the final investment decision (FID) in the last week of May 2026.

“The full-field Phase 3 development will increase oil production from 60,000 to 150,000 barrels per day (150,000BOPD) and gas output from 80 to 200 million cubic feet per day (200MMsf/d)”, ENI said at the time. That comes to 183,000Barrels of Oil Equivalent per Day (183,000BOEPD).

Saipem discloses that the drilling contract is a related party transaction. “Pursuant to Article 6 of the Consob Regulation on related party transaction, it is informed that the contract qualifies as a related party transaction – as it is carried out with ENI Côte d’Ivoire Limited, a company controlled by ENI S.p.A. – “of greater importance” and which, as an “ordinary transaction and carried out at market-equivalent or standard conditions”, falls within the exclusion pursuant to Article 13, paragraph 3, letter c) of the Consob Regulation on transactions with related parties and Article 8.2, letter c) of the Saipem’s Management System Guidelines “Transactions with Related Parties and Parties of Interest”.

Waltersmith Petroman is hitting as many right notes as it possibly can in the ongoing multi-well campaign on Ibigwe and Assa fields in the onshore eastern Niger Delta basin.

The company has reached 10,000000Barrels of Oil Per day (BOPD) of production since mid-June 2026, having added  over 8,000BOPD to the volume it  was outputting when the campaign began in March 2025.

The original plan for a four well drilling campaign has grown, right in the middle of the project, to a six (6) well campaign on both Ibigwe and Assa fields. The campaign is left with two wells: one on Ibigwe and the other on Assa, to finalise.  “We plan to end it in October after the final well in Ibigwe”, Abdulrazaq Isa, the company’s co-founder and chairman, said.

“Dapo Filani will take the credit. He has done an outstanding job. He developed and executed the plan”, Isa added.

Filani, a petroleum engineer who joined Waltersmith only three years ago from First E&P, has been the company’s Managing Director/CEO since January 2026, when the Isa, , Abdulrazaq surrendered the executive functions of the  chairmanship.

Waltersmith’s upstream focus for 2026 includes additional infill and development drilling for both oil and gas, deep opportunity maturation as well as drilling for reserves growth. The company’s gas game is dependent on bothits operated assets, ongoing new ventures as well as farm out opportunities that are at very advanced stages.