…Plans to up production to 145bpd in 2020
Chibisi Ohakah
Equatorial Guinea has increased its oil production output by 15,000 barrels per day starting this month, following new discoveries in the country’s offshore stream. In an interview with Platts news agency, the country’s oil minister, Gabriel Obiang said that by 2020 Equatorial Guinea will move its production level from the current 130,000bpd to 145bpd.
Obiang who spoke on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi (UAE) said the increase in oil production is as a result of oil discovery made by Noble Energy in offshore Equatorial Guinea. Noble Energy is a Houston Texas-based hydrocarbon exploration company.
“We have another drilling well in September that if it is successful will also increase production. Clearly in 2020, we will see an increase in crude production,” he said.
Obiang said also that the country’s oil production output could average around 145,000 barrels per day starting next year. The country’s oil production was 130,000 b/d in August, according to an S&P Global Platts survey.
The oil minister said his country is happy with oil prices at $60/b to $70/b, pointing out that the Central African country is part of an agreement by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 10 other countries to cut production through March 2020.
“We are happy with the current price and we were very keen to work with OPEC+ because of the volatility, but at this stage we are happy with the situation, but it depends on the bigger producers if they want to implement [the cuts] further,” he said
The minister said Equatorial Guinea had been talking with African oil producers on joining OPEC, but regretted that many of the African oil-producing nations are being held back by what he called ‘interests,’ which make them prefer observer statuses rather than taking active roles in OPEC policy or signing up to cut agreements.
“South Sudan is already an observer and we were originally interested in inviting Ghana. We also have countries like Senegal who are considering being observers,” Obiang said.
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