Murphy Oil's Block CI-709 Subsidiary Strikes Light Oil at Deepwater Bubale-1X Offshore Côte d'Ivoire

Murphy Oil Corporation's wholly owned subsidiary Murphy CI-709 Oil Co., Ltd. confirmed a light oil discovery at the Bubale-1X exploration well in Block CI-709, offshore Côte d'Ivoire, on June 22, 2026. The announcement came via a company press release filed through BusinessWire. The well encountered 100 feet (30 meters) of net oil pay across two discrete reservoir intervals, with preliminary results indicating high-quality light crude.

The Bubale-1X reached a total depth of 20,548 feet (6,263 meters) in 7,795 feet (2,376 meters) of water. The well sits approximately 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Côte d'Ivoire coastline. Murphy CI-709 Oil Co., Ltd. operates the block with a 90 percent working interest. Société Nationale d'Opérations Pétrolières de la Côte d'Ivoire, known as PETROCI, holds the remaining 10 percent.

Parent Company and Subsidiary Structure

Murphy CI-709 Oil Co., Ltd. is a purpose-specific operating subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corporation, headquartered in El Dorado, Arkansas. Murphy Oil structures its international exploration blocks through jurisdiction-specific subsidiaries, separating operating liability and fiscal reporting by country. The parent company's portfolio includes Eagle Ford Shale production in Texas, Tupper Montney and Kaybob Duvernay positions in Western Canada, deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets, and offshore acreage in Vietnam's Cuu Long Basin.

President and CEO Eric Hambly stated: "Early results at Bubale reinforce the prospectivity of our Côte d'Ivoire acreage." He noted the company will advance evaluation plans to define the discovery's full potential. The Bubale-1X was the third and final well in Murphy's current three-well exploration campaign offshore Côte d'Ivoire.

Drillship Costs and Campaign Economics

Murphy contracted the Transocean Deepwater Skyros to drill the Côte d'Ivoire wells at a day rate of $361,000, per Transocean fleet status disclosures cited in industry reporting. The three-well program ran from late February 2026 through June 2026, approximately 120 days. Murphy's 90 percent working interest share of drillship day-rate costs for the campaign amounts to approximately $39 million, before well services, seismic, and geological expenditures.

Murphy Oil did not release a resource estimate in the June 22 announcement. An appraisal well is planned for the second half of 2026 to test the lateral extent of the two reservoir intervals. Whether Murphy advances to development engineering depends on the appraisal results.

West Africa Deepwater Context

The Gulf of Guinea deepwater basin has yielded a series of large-scale light oil discoveries over the past decade. Comparable transform-margin plays in the region, including the SNE field off Senegal now developed as the Sangomar Field under Woodside Energy, have demonstrated that multi-reservoir settings with 100 feet of net pay can support bankable development projects. Block CI-709's water depth of 7,795 feet and its geological setting are broadly analogous to those West African precedents.

Murphy Oil shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker MUR. US markets had not opened as of this article's publication on Monday morning, June 23, 2026. Brent crude futures were trading at $77.54 per barrel in early Monday session trading, per OilPrice.com data with an 11-minute delay. WTI futures stood at $73.57 per barrel at the same reference time.