Bowleven operates three shallow blocks in the Etinde Permit area. Bowleven has a 75% equity interest and Vitol E&P Limited has a 25% equity interest in the Etinde Permit. Located near hydrocarbon-bearing regions on the West African coast including offshore Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Angola are Blocks MLHP-5, MLHP-6 and MLHP-7. The Blocks are located across the Rio del Rey basin (part of the southern margin of the Niger Delta oilfield basin) and the Douala Basin (which contains large undrilled seismically identified structures), together referred to as the Etinde Permit. 

The Etinde Permit covers approximately 2,314 km². The water depths are shallow, from the shoreline up to approximately 70 meters maximum depth. A production sharing contract was signed over the Permit in December 2008 incorporating a further three year exploration phase from this date.

In the late 1960s through to the early 1980s, eight wells were drilled in the northern Block MLHP-7 by Total Oil (‘‘Total’’), Société Nationale Elf Aquitaine (‘‘Elf’’) and Mobil Corporation (‘‘Mobil’’). These wells discovered reserves of gas and associated condensate in the Isongo Sands.

In 2004 and 2005 Bowleven drilled three more wells in Block MLHP-7: one of these wells was unsuccessful, one was a small gas discovery and the results of the third are being incorporated into an overall evaluation of the block.

In 2007, the Company drilled a successful appraisal well on Block 7 (IE-2) and a successful exploration well on Block 5 (D-1). It also drilled an exploration well on Block 7 (IF-1) that had to be abandoned due to well control issues following a significant gas kick. The first oil discovery on the Permit was made by the Company in 2008; the IF-1r well tested an average of 3,371 bopd from the Upper Isongo section.

The near term focus is progressing the IE/ID and IF developments projects towards sanction on both a stand alone and combined basis. There is now a significantly enhanced and expanded prospect inventory across the Etinde Permit which has provided the additional flexibility to pursue the various prospects and leads that have now been mapped.

A drilling campaign is currently ongoing on the Etinde Permit. The first well in the campaign, the IE-3 gas/condensate appraisal well is currently being drilled.

EurOil also has a 100% equity interest in the Bomono Permit, onshore Cameroon, extending to approximately 2,328 km² in the Douala/Kribi Campo Basin. The Permit covers the onshore extension of the highly prospective Douala Basin, which is characterised by numerous surface oil seeps but is virtually unexplored by modern exploration methods.