French oil company Total has signed an agreement with Yam's Petroleum to acquire a 60% interest in the CI-100 deepwater exploration licence in Cote d'Ivoire.
Covering an area of nearly 2,000sq km, the CI-100 block is located about 100km south-east of Abidjan in water depths ranging from 1,500m to 3,100m.
Yam’s Petroleum retains a 25% interest in the licence and Cote d’Ivoire’s national oil company Petroci holds the remaining 15%.
An initial 3D seismic survey has already been carried out by Yam’s Petroleum.
Exploration work will include a new 1,000sq km 3D seismic survey, which will complete coverage of the block.
Total Exploration & Production Geosciences senior vice president Marc Blaizot said that this is a promising area whose geological objectives are similar to that of major discoveries that have been made in the neighboring blocks in Ghana.