Offshore West Africa produces breakthrough discoveries on a regular basis now. Most of the attention is directed at waters off Namibia and its neighbors. But that’s only one part of the story.
Promising results include recent discoveries off Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria, with drilling programs ongoing in several other areas. Prospective plays extend north from Congo to Mauritania, both shallow and deepwater. They include the waters off 17 countries, including the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe.
Successful exploration drilling, programs to acquire and evaluate seismic and identify prospects and substantial investment to develop previous discoveries point to one conclusion:
A whole lot of new oil supply will start coming out of West Africa within five years.
West Africa Roundup
Murphy Oil announced a high-quality, light oil discovery 40 miles off Côte d’Ivoire in June. The Bubale-1X was drilled to 20,548 feet in about 7,800 feet of water and encountered 100 feet of net oil pay across two reservoirs, the company reported. It plans to drill another well in the second half of 2026 to test the extent of the find.
Earlier, Murphy estimated mean to upward recoverable resource potential in Block CI-709 at 340 million to 850 million barrels of oil equivalent. It owns a 90-percent working interest in the block with the rest held by state oil company Petroci (Société Nationale d’Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d’Ivoire).
In July, Renaissance Africa Energy Company announced a shallow-water oil discovery offshore Nigeria. Its JK-004 discovery well found about 1,000 total feet of hydrocarbon-bearing intervals across seven light oil reservoirs, the company reported.
“The JK-004 well provides a strong foundation for accelerated maturation with clear pathways to early development and value realization,” said Johnbosco Uche, vice president-exploration.
Renaissance noted it had operated the prospect, in lease area OML-74, for just over a year. Partners in the project include Nigerian National Petroleum Company, TotalEnergies, and an Agip subsidiary.
The discoveries by Murphy and Renaissance represent independent-operated successes in a region where offshore activity has been dominated by majors and large companies. Today, more independents are entering the picture, usually in exploration consortia.
To the north, Italy’s Eni has taken a stake in the MSGBC Basin area, which includes offshore Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea. Eni signed a license agreement in June for Block A1 offshore Gambia. The exploration area covers just more than 500 square miles, in water depths from 4,100 to 10,825 feet.
The company reported it would “gain access to a highly prospective offshore basin with significant resource potential.”
“Eni’s entry into The Gambia is in line with the company’s exploration strategy focused on building a geographically diversified portfolio which includes opportunities in proven but still underexplored and emerging areas and frontier ones with high potential,” it noted in a statement announcing the license.
Chevron acquired two promising deepwater blocks off Guinea-Bissau late last year, sharply increasing the industry’s interest level in the country. State energy company Petroguin entered an agreement with Tender Oil & Gas on two additional blocks earlier in 2026.
Current efforts involve evaluating existing seismic data and identifying drilling prospects. Offshore Guinea-Bissau was once thought to be gas prone but Chevron reported its initial exploration will target oil production.
TotalEnergies entered production-contracts for four exploration blocks offshore Liberia last year, covering about 4,900 square miles. Now Total and BluEnergies have launched a program across the country’s offshore Harper Basin for confirming and improving drillable prospects.
That effort reportedly includes reprocessing more than 2,380 square miles of 3-D seismic data, conducting a multibeam echo sounder survey covering 1,560 square miles, taking heat-flow measurements and obtaining seabed geochemical sampling.
Petrobras recently acquired a 75-percent interest and operating rights on Block 3 offshore São Tomé and Príncipe. It operates with an exploration consortium that includes Oranto Petroleum, which originally controlled the block, and São Tomé and Príncipe’s national petroleum agency.
The country has accelerated its latest licensing round, for Blocks 7, 8 and 9. It plans to approve bids and enter production-sharing contracts for the three offshore blocks before the end of 2026, according to petroleum agency chief Alvaro Silva.
Kosmos Energy is continuing its ongoing development drilling campaign in the Jubilee field area offshore Ghana. The company reported its J76 well, the third this year, was completed and came online in mid-June, adding about 20,000 barrels of oil per day to gross production.
“Initial results from the 2026 Ghana drilling program, in particular J76, highlight the potential of Jubilee with high-impact wells,” said Andrew Inglis, Kosmos chairman and CEO.
West Africa Hot Spots
Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria stand out as two of the leading exploration and development areas offshore West Africa. Earlier this year, Eni announced a significant gas and condensate discovery off Côte d’Ivoire, Calao South. The Murene South-1X well was drilled in Block CI-501 and hit high-quality Cenomanian sands.
The discovery “confirms the potential of the Calao channel complex that includes also the (2024) Calao discovery and represents the second largest in the country after Baleine, with estimated volumes of up to 5 Tcf of gas and 450 million barrels of condensate,” the company reported.
Eni discovered Baleine, the country’s largest offshore field to date, five years ago. It holds an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 3.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The $4 billion Phase 3 Baleine development project approved this year targets an increase in oil production from 60,000 to 150,000 barrels per day and gas output from 80 million to 200 million cubic feet per day.
Petrobras signed production sharing contracts on eight blocks offshore Côte d’Ivoire in June, according to the Ivorian government. The company submitted a preliminary declaration of interest on nine blocks last year and ultimately licensed all but one of them.
Nigeria is seeing an upsurge in offshore exploration interest as well as substantial development investment, with most of the action centered on the oil-rich Niger Delta. The country offered 50 blocks, 15 of them onshore, in a bidding round that began in December.
Eni, ExxonMobil and Shell are involved in major Nigerian development projects. Eni reportedly has received government clearance for a $10.3 billion investment to develop long-delayed deepwater oil production at the Zabazaba and Etan fields. First oil is expected in 2029 with a 150,000 barrel-per-day production target.
In July, Exxon announced it will spend $1 billion on its Usan Infill Project in OML-138, to increase oil production by 40,000 barrels per day. Exxon also plans a potential $8 billion investment in its extensive Owowo deepwater project, with a final investment decision expected in 2027.
Shell also expects a 2027 decision on a planned Bonga South West oil project investment that could total as much as $20 billion. It earlier committed $5 billion to the Bonga North deepwater development.