VAALCO Energy has finalized the acquisition of a further 3.23% participating interest in the Etame Marin Permit located offshore of the Republic of Gabon from Sojitz Etame Limited. The transaction, which took effective in August 2016, will boost VAALCO’s net production by about 11% post-closing and will increase its participating interest to 33.

58%, informed Ecofin Agency.

VAALCO is the operator of the fields in the Etame Marin block, which encompass approximately 28,700 gross acres in shallow water, Offshore Engineer reported.

There are four production platforms and nine wells currently producing in the concession, including three subsea well tiebacks. Production from the fields currently averages about 13,500b/d and over 94m barrels have been produced since production commenced in 2002.

VAALCO’s COO and Interim CEO, Cary Bounds, said: “At Etame, we have identified 21 low risk development and step-out drilling opportunities with about 65 million barrels of gross unrisked recoverable contingent resources. We are working with our partners on a schedule to develop these opportunities as soon as practical.”