Petrobras Signs Production Sharing Contracts for 8 Offshore Blocks in Côte d'Ivoire

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Petrobras, through its wholly owned subsidiary Petrobras Netherlands B.V., signed eight production sharing contracts for offshore oil and gas blocks with the Government of Côte d'Ivoire and the national oil company PETROCI Holding, covering blocks CI-513, CI-600, CI-601, CI-602, CI-603, CI-605, CI-701 and CI-702. Petrobras will hold a 90% interest in each block and serve as operator, while PETROCI will hold the remaining 10% interest.

The eight blocks are located in the western offshore area of Côte d'Ivoire's sedimentary basin, with a total exploration area of approximately 34,000 square kilometers, and water depths of up to about 4,000 meters in some areas. According to the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Energy of Côte d'Ivoire, the relevant areas are currently at a low level of exploration; following the signing of this batch of contracts, the area covered by exploration, appraisal and production activities in the country's sedimentary basin totals approximately 63,000 square kilometers, accounting for about 75% of the basin's total area.

The first phase of work after the contracts take effect will focus primarily on acquiring new geological and geophysical data to further evaluate the resource potential of each block and provide baseline data for the subsequent deployment of exploration wells. The Government of Côte d'Ivoire has not yet disclosed the minimum exploration investment amount, seismic survey workload, number of first-phase exploration wells, or drilling schedule for each of the eight blocks, so at this stage the project remains in the pre-exploration preparation phase following contract signing.

Petrobras' entry into Côte d'Ivoire involved more than a year of preliminary negotiations. Côte d'Ivoire's energy authorities presented the country's sedimentary basin to international oil and gas companies during CERAWeek in Houston, United States, in March 2025, and Petrobras subsequently formally expressed interest in the relevant offshore blocks on May 30, 2025. The company had previously obtained exclusive negotiation rights for nine offshore exploration blocks, and ultimately completed production sharing contract negotiations for eight of them.

This also marks the first time Petrobras has acquired operating interests in offshore exploration blocks in Côte d'Ivoire. The company will apply its capabilities in seismic interpretation, deepwater drilling and reservoir evaluation, accumulated in Brazil's deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil and gas exploration and development, to the above blocks. Petrobras stated that these blocks are part of its overseas new exploration frontier portfolio; the company currently also participates in oil and gas exploration in South Africa, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Namibia in Africa, and continues to evaluate exploration opportunities in markets such as Ghana.