Petrobras has finalised production sharing agreements for eight offshore exploration blocks in Ivory Coast, giving the Brazilian state-controlled oil company access to roughly 63,000 km² of Atlantic acreage and placing it in direct competition with Eni and other majors in one of West Africa’s fastest-moving deepwater basins.
The eight blocks — CI-513, CI-600, CI-601, CI-602, CI-603, CI-605, CI-701, and CI-702 — span shallow waters through to ultra-deep zones exceeding 4,000 metres, according to government disclosures and industry filings. The agreements were reached through production sharing contracts (PSCs), the standard fiscal instrument used across West African upstream markets, under which costs and revenues are split between the operator and the host government.
The deal extends Petrobras’s international upstream footprint at a moment of strong operational momentum at home. The company reported a reserve replacement rate of 175% in 2025, underpinned by continued expansion in Brazil’s pre-salt basin, where production has averaged more than 2.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
For Ivory Coast, the entry of a deepwater specialist of Petrobras’s scale reflects the growing confidence investors have placed in the country’s offshore petroleum system. That confidence was anchored by the Baleine field discovery — estimated at more than 2.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent — which began production in 2023 under Italian major Eni. A subsequent find at the Calao structure further validated the basin’s prospectivity and drew wider attention across the Gulf of Guinea.
With approximately 75% of Ivory Coast’s sedimentary basin now under contract, Abidjan is pressing to accelerate upstream development and establish itself alongside Nigeria and Angola as a significant Gulf of Guinea producer. The country’s offshore push comes as regional competition for exploration acreage intensifies, with international operators reassessing West Africa’s deepwater potential in light of recent discoveries and improved fiscal terms.
Petrobras’s entry adds technical depth to Ivory Coast’s operator mix. The company has built its global reputation on mastering ultra-deepwater drilling in Brazil’s pre-salt formations — conditions that share geological characteristics with parts of the West African margin — giving it a credible technical case for the acreage it has now secured.
