06 May 2013, Lagos – The Royal Dutch Shell has reiterated its commitment to the development of Nigeria’s Erha North Phase II deepwater project, being operated by the ExxonMobil company, Esso Exploration and Production.
Esso holds 56 per cent stake in the project, with Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company holding the remaining 44 per cent.
Shell said at the weekend it has mobilised resources for the development of the deep water project, expected to boost Nigeria’s oil output by 60,000 barrels per day on completion.
Esso and Shell recently received approvals from Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to proceed with the development of the project, after several years of delay, for which the NNPC is being blamed.
Last week, Peter Voser, the Chief Executive Officer of Shell said in the company’s first quarter report: “In Nigeria, Shell took the final investment decision for the development of the deep-water project Erha North Phase 2 (Shell interest 44 per cent), part of oil mining lease 133, located over 100 kilometres off the Nigerian coast.
“The project is expected to produce some 60 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) of mainly oil at peak production and improve utilisation of the existing Erha floating production, storage and offloading vessel”.
The project is expected to be on stream by 2015.
