Brazilian state-controlled energy giant Petrobras has finalised production-sharing agreements for eight offshore exploration blocks in Ivory Coast, dramatically expanding its footprint in West Africa’s fastest-growing deepwater exploration frontier. The contracts — covering blocks CI-513, CI-600, CI-601, CI-602, CI-603, CI-605, CI-701 and CI-702 — grant Petrobras access to approximately 63,000 square kilometres of offshore acreage, stretching from shallow coastal waters to ultra-deep zones exceeding 4,000 metres.
The move aligns with Petrobras’ broader international upstream diversification strategy, even as the company continues to expand its dominant presence in Brazil’s pre-salt basin, where output averaged more than 2.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2025. Petrobras reported a reserve replacement rate of 175 percent last year, underscoring the vigour of its exploration pipeline.
For Ivory Coast, the timing underscores surging investor appetite for the country’s offshore potential. The West African nation has emerged as one of the region’s most closely watched exploration frontiers since the Baleine field discovery — estimated at over 2.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent — which began commercial production in 2023 under operator Eni. The subsequent Calao discovery has further strengthened confidence in the basin’s petroleum system, attracting sustained interest across the wider Gulf of Guinea.
With approximately 75 percent of the country’s sedimentary basin now under contract, Abidjan is racing to accelerate upstream development and position itself alongside Nigeria and Angola as a major regional oil producer. Industry observers say the Petrobras deal marks a significant vote of confidence in Ivory Coast’s geological prospectivity and investment climate.
Source: prospect-intel.com