INTRODUCTION

Equatorial Guinea is situated at the hub of the dynamic offshore West Africa Petroleum Province and is now established as a significant petroleum producing nation. Vigorous exploration during the 1990's combined with rapid field development has resulted in liquids production rising from less than 5,000 bpd in 1992 to a 2001 average that exceeded 200,000 bpd.

Exciting new developments have included the Triton Energy's Ceiba field which was discovered in October 1999, and thanks to a remarkably speedy and technically excellent development plan, was producing first oil in November 2000. Ceiba defined a new petroleum system in Equatorial Guinea's Rio Muni Basin and further exploration success has been made with the discovery of the Okume Complex of fields, which commenced production in 2008.

More recently, in July 2009 the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy announced approval of the Aseng Plan of Development in Block I. Formerly known as Benita, Aseng was originally discovered in 2007 as a gas-condensate field. Subsequently, two appraisal wells were drilled in the structure, with the first identifying the oil resources and the second determining downdip reservoir limits. Initial development of the field will include five subsea wells flowing to a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO) where the production stream will be separated.

Equatorial Guinea's traditional producing area offshore Bioko island continues to expand with increased production at ExxonMobil's Zafiro field and Marathon's Alba field. Production from the Alba gas condensate field is now feeding a $400 million methanol plant on Bioko island, a $1.4 billion LNG plant and has removed the need for major gas-flaring.

Petroleum production now dominates the Equatorial Guinea economy with oil revenues accounting for over 70% of the national income and the petroleum sector is the driving force behind the ongoing growth in Equatorial Guinea's GDP and the country's rapid development.

Equatorial Guinea also has unrealised minerals potential and substantial tracts of land are available for leasing for minerals exploration. Artisanal gold production is well established and preliminary exploration work has indicated possibilities for diamonds and columbo-tantalite in particular. Further more systematic investigations are required to further evaluate the minerals potential of the Rio Muni area. (link to Minerals Page)