Established in 2004 and wholly owned by the Vitol Group, Vitol E&P today holds a growing portfolio of exploration and development opportunities in West Africa. The company recently divested its operated interest in a producing oil field in the Philippines which it successfully developed and then produced for three years. All of Vitol E&P’s assets are offshore, in water depths of less than 1,500 m.
Our strengths are flexibility, agility and speed of response. These qualities drive our business strategy and give us a competitive edge in everything from selecting assets to reviewing development scenarios.
Southeast Asia
In 2005, Vitol E&P farmed-in to the undeveloped Galoc oil field offshore Palawan in the Philippines. We pursued a fast-track development comprising two horizontal wells and a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to achieve first oil in October 2008. The field’s start up just 23 months after the final investment decision reflects our capacity to quickly and successfully undertake complex offshore development and production operations. Having achieved all the project goals and established an effective local operating company, Vitol E&P made the decision to divest its interest in the field in late 2011, in order to focus on its West African portfolio.
West Africa
In West Africa we hold a cluster of assets in four countries around the Gulf of Guinea – Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Congo Brazzaville. These licences are largely under-explored and all contain undeveloped hydrocarbon resources. Our best technical estimate of the discovered but undeveloped resource volume in our current West African portfolio is in excess of 200 million boe. A substantial work programme is underway to exploit these resources in parallel with further exploration.
We believe these future activities will see Vitol E&P established as a significant upstream player on the West African margin and we continue to seek opportunities to build the portfolio in this region.
While our strategy for near-term growth is focused on West Africa, we also look continuously for opportunities to expand outside of this core area. To achieve this we are rapidly developing our regional knowledge and working closely with the Vitol Group to find synergies born of the Group’s global reach and involvement across the energy supply chain.
We are a fast-growing team of experienced technical professionals in London. Our role is to support the local subsidiaries holding our licence interests. Locally, we are building teams with an understanding of regional procedures and issues, and to this end we employ and develop indigenous staff wherever and whenever possible.
Although our activities are mostly conducted offshore, we recognise that our business is likely to affect nearby communities. We work hard to make sure that our impact is positive and we take our responsibilities towards local communities seriously.
We generally adopt North Sea practices and standards in the management of HSE issues; we comply with local laws and regulations; and we always work with the objective of trying to ensure that local people and businesses benefit from our activities.