Ivory Coast-based energy firm Foxtrot International will invest $315 million to increase its gas output by a third by 2022 to meet the West African nation's growing power needs, the firm's general manager told Reuters on Monday.
Ivory Coast, French-speaking West Africa's largest economy and the world's top cocoa producer, is seeing domestic electricity consumption rise by about 10% a year.
"Three wells scheduled for drilling in 2021 on bloc CI-27 will help increase natural gas deliveries by about 30%," Foxtrot's Jean-Michel Bonnet said.
The firm, partly owned by French industrial group Bouygues, operates a joint venture with Ivorian state oil company Petroci in the offshore blocks CI-27 and CI-12.
The investment follows a deal signed with the government and power sector in February, Bonnet said.
Foxtrot produced 150 million cubic feet of gas per day in 2019, which generated 55% of Ivory Coast's electricity.
Ivory Coast is also seeking to boost its power output to expand its regional electricity exports. The country sells electricity to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and Mali and has plans to connect Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to its grid.
(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly Editing by Alessandra Prentice and David Evans)
