21.03.2016
A year ago, Douglas-Westwood (DW) commented that E&P companies within West Africa were focusing reduced Capex plans on high-quality deepwater assets in the region. At the time, Brent crude was rebounding towards a mid-2015 peak of over $60 per barrel. However, in the months since this peak, oil prices plummeted once more, with Brent reaching lows of $26 per barrel in January 2016. DW has since revised its outlook considerably for West Africa’s deepwater prospects. With Brent on the rise last year and operators reiterating their commitment to deepwater assets in the region, DW foresaw the drilling of 483 deepwater development wells over 2016-2021 with deepwater production to continually increase to 4.0 mmboe/d by the end of this period.