Vaalco Energy has announced the shutting in of the South Tchibala-2H well off Gabon due to a failure of the electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) at a development.

According to the company, the ESPs on the South Tchibala-2H well failed not less than two weeks ago. The well was producing 1700 bpd of oil gross.

Vaalco is currently trying to assemble a hydraulic workover unit to the Avouma platform and change the ESPs. The well is scheduled to resume production by early Q4 of 2016.

“Using a hydraulic unit to replace the ESPs rather than mobilizing a jack-up rig results in substantially lower cost for the workover,” Vaalco said.

The company added that the operation is expected to cost around $1.5 million.

As a matter of fact, the shutting down of the well is not expected to affect Vaalco's yearly production target, which is between 3700 and 4500 boepd.

In 2015, Vaalco utilized the Transocean jack-up Constellation II as a substitute for the ESPs on three development wells at the Avouma/South Tchibala development.

At the same time, the company entered into an agreement with Transocean to purchase the remaining contract term associated with the GSF Constellation II rig, which it terminated in February.

Under the contract, Vaalco will have to pay $5.1 million for unused rig days, which was due to expire this month.

The Houston-based company’s total net production in Q2 was around 4700 boepd, an increase of 4% from the 4,516 net boepd in Q1 of 2016, Upstream news reports.

Anita Fatunji