EAGE Near Surface Geoscience Conference & Exhibition
Thessaloniki, Greece, 20 – 24 September
Equatorial Guinea has been one of the Gulf of Guinea’s most successful hydrocarbon provinces for more than three decades. The giant Zafiro and Ceiba fields, together with the Alba gas complex and LNG exports from Punta Europa, have established the country as a major regional producer with proven petroleum systems, mature infrastructure and a stable operating environment.
While these assets continue to generate substantial value, many of the largest producing fields are now mature. The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (MMH) has recognised this and facilitated the development of numerous smaller discoveries through energy gathering networks, including cross-border discoveries from Cameroon. And now the MMH and key operators have collaborated to hunt for even greater potential.
In 2026, the MMH initiated a new phase of offshore licensing, as four large tranches of open acreage have been directly awarded to major international operators including ENI, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Galp (Figure 1). These awards reflect growing confidence in the remaining exploration potential of Equatorial Guinea’s offshore sector and recognise both the changing industry interest in deepwater and the ability of modern seismic imaging to unlock previously underappreciated opportunities. The awards for several contiguous blocks allow and encourage operators to really invest and master the geology of a large area, representing a particularly welcome and ingenious licensing innovation.
Starting last year, Searcher has now reprocessed 10,550 km of legacy 2D data from all over EG’s prospective deepwater (see inset map for location). These multi-client data are available for licencing. The line shown here is EG98Repro, with PSDM displayed in depth.
For decades, deltaic environments have been a globally prolific source of hydrocarbons. The Niger, Nile and most recently the Mahakam Delta provides evidence of the significant potential of these depositional environments. Large deltaic deposits in frontier settings are becoming more challenging to find, particularly those with relatively proximal discoveries and good existing infrastructure.
One such opportunity where this exists is offshore Eastern Venezuela. Here, a significant deltaic deposit is present and would be categorised as frontier in terms of drilling density; however, significant discoveries have also been made offshore Trinidad & Tobago within the Columbus Basin. Due to this unique setting, DHI’s can be seen on both sides of the border that help to de-risk this frontier area. Geoex MCG, in partnership with DUG Technology, have completed the reprocessing of Delta Amacuro 80B with reprocessing of the Delta Amacuro 69B survey underway (Figure 2). Both surveys provide a complete imaging coverage of the deltaic setting. Within the data there are hydrocarbon indications that have been identified in multiple areas with tieback potential to Trinidad’s LNG plant. This untapped potential is sure to attract significant industry interest.
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