Transocean's drillship Deepwater Skyros has arrived and is anchored off Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to commence a three-well exploration drilling campaign for Murphy Oil. This programme has the potential to be transformative for the company due to the significant resource size of the targeted prospects.

First Well: Civette Prospect

The first well, scheduled to spud by year-end, will target the Civette prospect in Block CI-502. This prospect is geologically similar to Eni's 2024 Calao gas condensate discovery. Civette holds mean estimated potential reserves of about 400 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), with an upside of up to 1 billion boe. It is located north of Calao and southwest of the existing Baobab and Espoir fields. Results from this well are expected towards the end of January.

Second Well: Caracal Prospect

The second well will target the Caracal prospect, estimated to hold 150 million to 360 million boe. This structure appears to straddle blocks CI-102 and CI-531, located offshore and north of Murphy's Paon project.

Third Well: Bubale Prospect

The third well will target the Bubale prospect, replacing the previously planned Kobus structure. This decision was based on a reassessment of seismic data, with Bubale offering a lower testing cost, a higher chance of success, and a large estimated resource range of 340 million to 850 million boe. Kobus remains a candidate for future exploration.

Contract and Cost Details

Murphy Oil chartered the Deepwater Skyros in mid-2025 under a contract for three firm wells and one optional probe at a dayrate of $361,000. The total cost for each firm well is estimated to be between $50 million and $60 million.