Sovereign’s CEO, Joe Bruso, directed United Meridian Corp's worldwide exploration program from 1992 to 1998 and discovered the Zafiro Field in Equatorial Guinea’s Block B in March 1995, with 65% partner Mobil.

A fast track development plan was chosen by Mobil to begin production within 13 months of the discovery well. The Zafiro Field came on stream in August 1996 due to an aggressive drilling program and a development scheme based on subsea trees arranged on 2-well flowline loops tied back via flexible risers to a dedicated FPSO vessel, The Zafiro Producer. By 2004 the Zafiro Complex facilities included a Floating Production Unit (Zafiro Producer), a floating storage and offloading vessel (Magnolia FSO), a fixed platform (Jade), a floating production storage and offloading vessel (Serpentina FPSO), and both platform and subseas wells. Production from the Zafiro complex peaked at over 300,000 bo/d. Gross recoverable reserves for the Zafiro complex are currently estimated at 1.2 billion barrels and approximately 500 billion cubic feet of gas.

Oil & Gas Journal Article about this area by Joe Bruso
(PDF 500K)

Click here to see the original Zafiro Field discovery announcement by United Meridian Corporation