PARIS, May 15 (UPI) -- French supermajor Total said first quarter revenue for operations in Gabon was down 6 percent because of lower oil production.
Total said Gabonese revenues declined 6 percent to $390 million for the first quarter because of lower market prices and lower volumes sold.
The company said there was a 2 percent decline in production because of natural field maturation. This was offset by production from new wells, though overall oil production was down 10 percent to 49,000 barrels per day.
Total attributed the general decline to the shutdown of some offshore production units. A compressor station was closed after a cable broke and operations offshore were affected by a March labor strike.
Gabonese oil production peaked in the late 1990s because of field maturation. Since then, the country fell from the No. 3 oil producer to the No. 6 position for the region.
The country at the end of last year had 2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Oil accounts for 65 percent of government revenue and 75 percent of export revenue, the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports.
