Hess Corp. has completed the sale of its interests in offshore Equatorial Guinea to Kosmos Energy and Trident Energy for US$650 million.
Hess’ exit from Equatorial Guinea comes after nearly two decades of operations at the Ceiba field and Okume complex, in the Rio Muni basin, which began producing in 2000 and 2006, respectively. Hess' partners in the fields, Tullow Oil (15%) and national oil company GEPetrol (5%, carried interest), will remain.
During the first half of 2017, Hess said that net production from the its assets in Equatorial Guinea averaged 28,000 bo/d. Hess celebrated 200 MMbbl of oil last year at Okume, located in about 1600ft of water and about 150mi south of Bioko Island in the Gulf of Guinea. The Okume Complex consists of the Elon, Okume, Oveng and Ebano reservoirs. Hess said at the time that it had drilled 48 producing wells and completed three distinct seismic campaigns since production began in December 2006.
“Our 2017 asset monetizations have exceeded expectations in terms of value and timing,” CEO John Hess said. “These proceeds, along with cash on our balance sheet, are enabling us to prefund our world-class investment opportunity in Guyana, increase our rig count in the Bakken in 2018, return capital to shareholders and reduce debt.”
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