Almost two years after making the discovery and 18 months after taking a final investment decision (FID) on the project, Eni has announced the start of oil and gas production at the Baleine field offshore Côte D'Ivoire. 

The Baleine field is the largest hydrocarbon discovery in the country's sedimentary basin to this day. The project is jointly developed with PetroCi, Côte D'Ivoire national oil company (NOC), which owns a 10% stake in Baleine.

Production is now taking place through an FPSO that has been revamped to take 15,000 barrels per day of oil and about 25 million cubic feet per day of gas. The development plan of Baleine covers three phases, and this achievement is related to the completion of the first of them.

Once all phases are done, Eni expects to be able to exploit Baleine's entire capacity of 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 3.3 trillion cubic feet of gas.