Murphy Oil Corp said Monday it had encountered noncommercial quantities of hydrocarbons in the first of its three-well exploration campaign offshore Côte d’Ivoire.
“A key outcome at Civette is that we confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons in this frontier play – a meaningful success in early-stage exploration”, president and chief executive Eric Hambly said in an online statement. “While Civette did not meet commercial thresholds, the well provided insights that strengthen our subsurface understanding for the potential of the [Tano] basin and inform the remaining prospectivity on the CI-502 Block”.
The Houston, Texas-based oil and gas explorer and developer had placed a gross resource potential of 440-1,000 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) on Civette, according to Murphy Oil’s investor presentation on January 7, 2026.
The Civette well is in Block CI-502. The company said Monday it would continue with the Bubale prospect in Block CI-709 and the Caracal prospect in CI-102, “both targeting independent plays with significant resource potential”.
According to the investor presentation, the gross resource potential for Bubale and Caracal is 340-850 MMboe and 150-360 MMboe respectively. They are scheduled to be spudded this year.
The three blocks are among five held by Murphy Oil in the West African country. The five, all in deep waters, are co-owned with Société Nationale d’Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d’Ivoire, the American company holding 85-90 percent operating interests. The licenses, acquired 2023, cover about 1.5 million gross acres in the Tano basin, according to Murphy Oil.
Murphy Oil was scheduled to submit a development plan for the Paon discovery in Block CI-103 to Ivorian authorities by the end of 2025, according to the company’s annual report for 2024.
Elsewhere, Murphy Oil has scheduled two more spuds in Vietnam this year, both appraisal wells for last year’s Hai Su Vang oil discovery. The first appraisal well in the Cuu Long basin discovery was spudded in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the investor presentation.
On January 6, 2026, Murphy Oil reported that Hai Su Vang’s first appraisal well confirmed the discovery as “significant”.
“The updated midpoint of recoverable resources for the primary reservoir is towards the high end of our previously communicated range of 170-430 MMboe and the high end of the new range now exceeds 430 MMboe”, Murphy Oil said. “Additionally, results from the shallow reservoir provide recoverable resource upside not included in the previously communicated range.
“Additional appraisal wells are necessary to further refine the range of recoverable resources for both reservoirs”.
The Hai Su Vang-2X appraisal well encountered 429 feet of net oil pay across the same two reservoirs where the Hai Su Vang-1X discovery encountered about 370 feet of net oil pay, Murphy Oil said.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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