Nigeria Grants License for Gas Production Offshore Lagos

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Photo Credit: Dentons

Nigeria Grants License for Gas Production Offshore Lagos Nigeria’s Federal Government has renewed the licence for the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 13 for 20 years.

The license covers the continuing

production of oil in the Aje field, located offshore Lagos. It automatically assents to the plans to monetize the natural gas reservoir in the field.

Aje has produced an average of 3,000 BOPD in the last one year, but the volume has come from the small oil rim of a prospect that is otherwise a natural gas asset. And while the oil production continues, the block’s JV partner’s

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focus on advancing the development plan targeted at monetizing the gas in Turonian reservoirs, which are shallower than the Cenomanian sands, where the oil is currently being produced.

neither the OPL 284 nor the Tsekelewu field has had the benefit of any work programme. The Tsekelewu field has been held by Sahara for 15 years “and we have decided that revocation is probably the way to go”.

DPR Revokes Alfred James’ OPL 302, Considers Move on Sahara’s Tsekelewu and OPL 284

CNOOC Says Nigeria is its Largest Investment Destination

The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has revoked the Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 302 from Alfred James, which has held the lease for over 25 Years without doing as little as paying the signature bonus.

Nigeria’s regulatory agency for Petroleum Resources is considering doing the same for Cromwell’s OPLs 305 and 306 as well as Sahara Energy’s OPL 284 and the Tsekelewu field.

The action results from DPR’s ongoing portfolio review exercise.

OPLs 302, 305 and 306, all located in the Benin Basin have become far more in demand on account of the discovery of Ogo field (in OPL 310) in 2014 and the commissioning of Aje field (OML 113) in 2016, two assets which are located in the same geological province. Officials in the Ministry of Petroleum have come under pressure from groups hoping to be awarded these tracts. With regards to Sahara Energy assets, DPR sources say that

The China National Offshore Oil says it is ready to invest additional $3billion in its existing stakes in offshore oil and gas operations in Nigeria.

Yuan Guangyu, Chief Executive Officer of the Beijing based Corporation, says the investment in Nigeria is the most strategic and important overseas business undertaking of the firm.

Guangyu stated this when he led a team of the CNOOC top executives to the corporate headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in Abuja, CNOOC’s major asset is its 45% stake in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130, which hosts the Akpo and Egina field.

Guangyu didn’t disclose over how many years the $3 Billion would be spread. He said that CNOOC had invested over $14 Billion in its Nigerian operations and called on the management of the NNPC to seek common grounds of beneficial interest with the Chinese firm for enhanced productivity.

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Founded in 1982, the corporation is one of the three big Chinese national oil entities. CNOOC is originally focused on offshore upstream exploration and production, although it is also heavily invested in the Ugandan basin wide oilfield development, which is located onshore.

Shell Joins the North West African Rush

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Royal Dutch Shell has joined other majors in the rush for hydrocarbon opportunities in the Northwest African segment of the Transform Margin.

The company signed two Production Sharing contracts with the government of Mauritania, the only country so far in that geologic province, where crude oil has been produced.

The contracts are for the exploration and potential future production of hydrocarbons in the offshore blocks C-10 and C-19.

The two tracts are located offshore, in water depths ranging from 20 to 2,000 metres. The total area of two blocks is approximately 23,675 square kilometres. The new block C-10 consists of three previous blocks C-10, C-28 and C-29.

BP, ExxonMobil, TOTAL and ENI have taken positions in this part of the continent, mostly in Senegal and Mauritania. Chevron has interests in Morocco, which is in the nethermost flank of the margin.

Crude oil was discovered in Mauritania’s Chinguetti field in 2001 and brought on stream by Woodside in 2006. The rapidly depicted output forced out the Australian independent from the asset, barely a year after first oil.

But the point had been made; Mauritania was an oil producer, Senegal is the next country in the region to be an oil producer that is if the development plan devised by Cairn Energy and Woodside comes to fruition, delivering 100,000BOPD, at peak from the SNE field, with 2023 as tentative date for first oil.

There has, however been only gas discoveries in the province, since the SNE field was discovered in 2014.

Shell, itself is a net producer, will operate the exploration programme with a 90% interest. Societe Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures et de Patrimoine Minier, the national oil company of Mauritania, holds 10%.

Following the customary government approvals of the contracts, Shell will set up an office in Nouakchott and begin exploration activities, starting with reprocessing and analysis of existing seismic data and acquisition if new data.

Shell and the government of Mauritania have agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly evaluate further offshore exploration opportunities, examine new ways of meeting the country’s domestic energy needs, and build capability in the energy sector.