24— Vanguard, TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2014
By MICHAEL EBOH
M
arginal Fields operators in Nigeria failed to fully develop and utilise the full potential of their wells in the third quarter of 2013, as they contributed only 2.54 per cent to the country’s crude production. Giving a summary of fiscalised crude oil production in its 2013 Third Quarter Petroleum Information, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said marginal fields’ operators produced a total of 5.27 million barrels out of the total third quarter 2013 crude oil production of 207.71 million barrels. Of the lot, Oriental Energy recorded the highest crude production, with 3.473 million barrels, representing 65.84 per cent of the total produced by marginal fields’ operators and 1.67 of the total crude oil produced in the third quarter. Midwestern Oil followed with total production of 901,859 barrels. Others are: •Energia produced 226,567 barrels •Waltersmith Petroman 202,368 barrels •Pillar Oil - 148,720 barrels •Platform Petroleum 169,283 barrels •Bittania-U produced 78,405 barrels, and •Niger Delta Petroleum
Marginal fields contribute 2.5% of production in Q3 Resources - 70,884 barrels According to the NNPC report, one of the operators, Movido Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited did not record any crude oil
production in the period under review. The report also showed that although the Independent/ Sole Risk oil companies performed better than the
marginal field operators, their production was still poor, accounting for only 7.77 per cent of the total crude produced during the period. Specifically, companies in this
category produced about 16.148 million barrels of crude oil, with NNPC’s subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC Okono accounting for the highest production, with 3.635 million barrels of crude. The NPDC/Seplat Joint Venture followed with 2.31 million barrels, while Seplat Petroleum produced 1.77 million barrels. As always, the Joint Venture, Alternative Funding – Joint Ventures, AF-JV, and Production Sharing Companies, PSCs, dominated oil production in the quarter under review, accounting for 89.3 per cent of total production. The companies produced a total of 185.45 million barrels of crude oil, with the Mobil JV overtaking its Shell counterpart with total production of 22.8 million barrels, while the Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, SPDC JV produced 22.65 million barrels. The Chevron PSC recorded 22.33 million barrels production; Mobil AF-JV 20.73 million barrels; and the Chevron JV produced 19.01 million barrels.
CNOOC, Gas Group JV to invest $200m in logistics C
HINA National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC Energy, and its joint venture, JV partner, Gas Group, said they are planning to invest up to $200 million in petroleum logistics in Nigeria. Already, the partners said the JV had invested about $50 million (N8 billion) in tools and planned to invest additional $150 million or N24 billion in downhole tools, logistics trucks, machine shop and rig assembly in Nigeria. The Group Chief Executive Officer, Gas Group, Mr Gliffeth Wonuigwe, disclosed this during a tour of the company ’s Warehouse at Kidney Island in Port Harcourt, Rivers State last week by officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and some executives of the International Oil Companies, IOCs. Wonuigwe explained that the joint investment started with the signing of a strategic integrated agreement with
CNOOC in Tiangin, China, in 2012. The agreement, which was signed by Wonuigwe, and the Chief Executive Officer, CNOOC Energy, represented by Mr Nan Shan, covered joint operation of downhole tools stocking, fishing and well completion services and logistics. The venture is being executed through First Atlantics Drilling Services Limited, a subsidiary of Gas Group in collaboration with CNOOC Energy. CNOOC is a Chinese group with over $30 billion revenue in exploration and production and associated integrated services. “We have invested over $50 million in the first phase as you can see physically on ground, which informed this facility tour. We took a delivery of $10 million worth of tools and trucks, and another shipment of $40 million will arrive Nigerian port at the end of March,” he explained.
“The Second Tier is the investment of $150 million in rig assembly plant at Kidney Island eastern area. The service will be executed by Houston based, IDE and Loadcraft,” Wonuigwe added. He noted that the initiative will help to empower more Nigerians and the global oil industry, saying that it will create over 5,000 employment opportunities in its rig assembly, oil field services. Through First Atlantics, the JV expects to create a niche in oilfield services with effective stocking and sales of downhole tools, rig movement, well completion, decommissioning, and haulage of heavy oilfield maintenance equipment. Others are drilling services, provision of cranes services, forklifts, casing and tubing and a host of others. Wonuigwe further noted that the strategic relationship was re-emphasised in Beijing, during President Goodluck’s meeting with the Chinese President, Mr. Shin Jin Pin, last July to strengthen Nigeria/
Chinese bilateral relationship. “So, we hope that in the next six months, the milestone we are going to record will begin to look like a mini Houston,” he assured. Speaking at the facility inspection, the Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production, NNPC, Mr. Abiye Membere, said the venture marked the beginning of exciting activities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Membere, who was represented by the Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, Mr Fidel Pepple, added that “Gas Group has been adding value to the oil and gas industry in terms of consistent empowering of Nigerians through the technical partners by providing expertise for the transfer of technology to Nigerians.” He urged the IOCs to support the investment by
patronising the logistics base in Kidney Island, saying, “For Nigerian companies to grow so that we can develop adequate capacity in-country for all projects, it is necessary for the IOCs to support all Nigerian companies.” The Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Goerge Osahon, said the JV is a reflection of the confidence of the international business community in the Nigerian economy. Represented by the South South Zonal Coordinator, DPR, Mrs. O.C Sibeudu, he assured of the agency ’s support for the venture, saying it will boost in-country capacity and open up the industry for additional foreign direct investments. “The development of the logistics base by Gas Group and partners will help Nigeria to attract investment from the oil and gas industry of neighbouring West African countries, thereby, making Nigeria a hub for all the new discoveries within sub-Sahara Africa,” he said.