8th February, 2017
Workers at Canadian Natural Resources’ (CNR) Baobab and Espoir oil and gas fields in Ivory Coast launched a 72-hour strike early on Wednesday over employment conditions, the head of their union said.
“There’s no gas coming from any of CNR’s platforms now, and that represents around 30 percent of Ivorian production,” Imrana Konate, secretary-general of the SISPOO union, told Reuters.
“We’ve said it would be 72 hours, but it depends on progress in discussions with ministry and company.”
CNR was not immediately reachable for comment.
On July 19, 2016, CNR said that it would be postponing 300-400 million dollars in planned investment on its Ivory Coast offshore blocks pending a rebound in crude prices.
CNR general manager in the West African nation said after spending around 1.5 billion dollars on drilling new wells on its Espoir and Baobab fields in the last two years, CNR has raised its output from 18,000 barrels per day (bpd) in late 2013 to its current level of between 40,000 and 45,000 bpd.
However, oil prices have tumbled over the past two years. Brent crude was trading at around 47 dollars per barrel, down from over 100 dollars per barrel in late 2014.
Ivory Coast’s daily crude oil output stands at around 53,000 bpd, but its offshore blocks, located at the heart of the Gulf of Guinea are attracting growing interest.
Companies either currently conducting exploration in Ivory Coast or preparing to do so include France’s Total, U.S. firms Exxon Mobil and Anadarko, and Africa-focused Tullow Oil.