French oil major TotalEnergies has found hydrocarbons as part of a drilling campaign to expand its Moho field offshore Republic of Congo, it said on Monday.
The well encountered a column of 160 metres of oil and gas. Total said the Moho G discovery and its previous Moho H find represent recoverable resources of close to 100 million barrels.
Oil majors have expressed renewed interest in West Africa in a bid to replenish resources from declining fields elsewhere.
TotalEnergies' current production at the Moho deep offshore field, located 80 kilometres from the coast of Pointe Noire, consists of two floating units with combined output of around 90,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day.
The company plans to connect the Moho F and Moho G discoveries to existing Moho facilities.
"This new discovery on the Moho licence benefits from its proximity to existing production infrastructure, allowing a short-cycle, cost-effective tie-back development," Nicola Mavilla, Senior Vice-President Exploration, said in a statement.
TotalEnergies EP Congo is the operator of Moho licence with a 63.5 per cent participation, alongside Trident Energy with 21.5 per cent and Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo with 15 per cent.
(Reporting by America Hernandez in Paris; Editing by Joe Bavier)