Gabon is sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth largest producer and exporter of crude oil. The Dussafu Marin Permit is a Development and Exploitation license with multiple discoveries and prospects lying within a proven oil and gas play fairway within the Southern Gabon Basin. To the north west of the block is the Etame-Ebouri Trend, a collection of fields producing from the pre-salt Gamba and Dentale sandstones, and to the north are the Lucina and M’Bya fields which produce from the syn-rift Lucina sandstones beneath the Gamba.

Dussafu is operated by BW Energy Gabon and Panoro’s  interest in the license is 17.5%. There are multiple oil fields within the Dussafu Permit: Moubenga, Walt Whitman, Ruche, Ruche North East, Tortue, Hibiscus and Hibiscus North. The latter five fields were discovered by Panoro and JV partners. During 2021 gross production from Dussafu Marin amounted to 4.1 MMbbls. The gross 2P reserves on the license were estimated as of end 2021 to be approximately 99.7 million barrels and gross 2C resources 38.7 MMbbls.

The first field in the Dussafu EEA area, Tortue, started oil production in September 2018 from two initial horizontal development wells drilled in the first half of 2018. In 2019/2020 a further two development wells were drilled and brought onstream with the final two wells being drilled and brought onstream in 2021, making a total of six production wells on the field. The oil from the Tortue wells is produced via subsea trees and flowlines to a leased FPSO for processing, storage and export.

The next phase of development at Dussafu is the Hibiscus and Ruche fields, which are being developed together and tied back to the BW Adolo FPSO stationed at Tortue. Final Investment Decision was taken for the project in 2019, and the development consists of six wells in Hibiscus and Ruche in phase 1, which will be followed by another six or seven wells, including wells in the Ruche NE field, in phase 2. 

The BW MaBoMo production facility, flexible pipelines and risers connecting the new facility to the BW Adolo FPSO were installed in 2022. Phase 1 production drilling commenced in early January 2023 and the first well was put into production in April 2023 as planned. Once all six wells at the Hibiscus Ruche phase 1 development have been completed production at Dussafu is expected to reach levels of around 40,000 barrels of oil per day on a gross basis.

The exploration potential in Dussafu is significant with several Gamba and Dentale prospects in addition to the already discovered resources, and in future years additional prospects may be targeted.