July 10, 2023
Gibson Dunn advised Murphy Oil Corporation, a NYSE listed US-based independent oil and natural gas exploration company, on the negotiation of Production Sharing Contracts for 5 blocks offshore Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) with the Ivory Coast government and the associated Joint Operating Agreements with its partner, state-owned oil company, PETROCI. Block CI-103 contains the Paon discovery that was discovered by former operator Anadarko Petroleum, and four of these blocks are just west of the deep-water Baleine oil field discovered by Eni in 2021, which is estimated to hold 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 3.3 trillion cubic feet of associated gas. The blocks extend over 1.5 million gross acres, which is equivalent to 256 Gulf of Mexico blocks.
The Gibson Dunn team was led by Singapore partner Brad Roach and included Paris partner Benoît Fleury, Washington, D.C. partner John Chesley, Singapore associate Alexandra Jones, and Paris associate Agathe Joyce.