Vaalco Energy has resumed oil production at the Baobab field, located on the CI-40 block offshore Côte d'Ivoire, following the completion of refurbishment work on the Baobab Ivoirien FPSO vessel. The restart marks the end of a planned production shutdown associated with the maintenance and upgrade programme carried out on the floating production, storage and offloading unit.
The Baobab field represents one of Côte d'Ivoire's established offshore oil assets, and the FPSO serves as the central processing and export hub for production from the CI-40 block. Refurbishment campaigns of this nature are critical for extending the operational life of ageing FPSO infrastructure and maintaining production integrity in West African offshore environments, where asset uptime is directly tied to revenue generation and licence compliance.
Vaalco Energy has been expanding its West African portfolio in recent years, and the successful restart at Baobab underscores the operator's commitment to sustaining output from its Côte d'Ivoire position. Bringing the FPSO back online following a refurbishment — rather than opting for vessel replacement — signals a strategy focused on maximising the remaining productive life of the existing asset while managing capital expenditure.
For service companies monitoring the West African offshore market, the Baobab restart is a useful indicator of operator activity levels in Côte d'Ivoire, a jurisdiction that has seen renewed interest from international oil companies alongside longer-standing deepwater development ambitions. FPSO refurbishment cycles in the region consistently generate demand across multiple service segments, including inspection, maintenance and repair work, rotating equipment overhaul, marine systems upgrades, and recommissioning support. The conclusion of the Baobab refurbishment also implies that near-term service intensity at this specific asset will normalise, though ongoing production operations will sustain baseline demand for well services, topside maintenance, and cargo and offtake logistics.