French geoscience firm CGG has been awarded a contract by Côte d’Ivoire’s Direction Générale des Hydrocarbures (DGH) and PETROCI, the national oil company, to acquire with its local partner, Harvex Geosolutions, a multi-client program of gravity, gravity gradiometry and magnetic data over the republic’s onshore and shallow offshore basins.
According to Reuters, Ivory Coast is offering 22 new blocks for hydrocarbon exploration through a new licensing round launched this week.
Of the 22 concessions to be promoted, all but one of them lie offshore, says Reuters.
The five-month program will deploy CGG’s new Falcon Full Spectrum gravity solution, an airborne gravity platform, to acquire about 28,000 line km of data over onshore and shallow offshore licenses, subject to industry pre-funding commitments. The contract includes an option to acquire a further 26,000 line km over the deepwater offshore licenses.
The Falcon Full Spectrum data will be interpreted with existing exploration data to provide details about the basin structure, the sediment thickness and the basement nature in order to help identify areas of mature source rock, reservoir deposition and prospective structures. With some acreage already licensed, this will allow current and future license holders to better assess their blocks and de-risk future exploration expenditure.
Jean-Georges Malcor, CEO, CGG, said: “This program represents an important step for Cote d’Ivoire to open up further plays in both its onshore and offshore basins.”