Hydrocarbons: in Gabon, Vaalco announces positive and encouraging results despite the Covid-19 pandemic
On 25 March, the US multinational oil company announced that it had achieved a net income of 21.5 billion CFA francs for the year 2019, with production of 3,476 barrels/day. In view of the strong increase recorded since the last quarter of 2019, the outlook for 2020 looks even better, with estimates of around 4,400 to 5,000 barrels/day. Cary Bounds, Vaalco’s CEO, said the company is in « a healthy financial position with strong cash flow, increased production from our successful drilling program, and approximately one-third of our production hedged to June 2020 at an average price of $66.70 per barrel. » To achieve this result, « we successfully completed a drilling and reclamation program for 2019-20, which began in September 2019 and was financed with free cash flow and operating cash flow, » he said. In addition, Vaalco Energy said it « successfully drilled two development wells that exceeded production expectations and two appraisal wells. A third development well is also expected to add production when it is completed and commissioned by this month. To date, operations have not been significantly disrupted by the current global VIDOC-19 crisis and Vaalco has been able to overcome the logistical challenges induced since the outbreak.