OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Chevron has finally divested its last stake in old oil assets located in Nigeria’s shallow waters.
The assets, Oil Mining License, OMLs 86 and 88 saw the American oil major sell-off its 40 percent stake to Conoil Producing Limited.
The oil giant had acquired the OMLs alongside others; OMLs 83 and 85 from Texaco in 1999 after a merger of both oil firms.
However, between 2013 and 2015, after a successful sale of OMLs 83 and 85, Chevron failed to secure a buy for OMLs 86 and 88.
OML 86 contains the Apoi fields, the largest being North Apoi, and holds fields like Funiwa, Sengana and Okubie.
On the other hand, OML 88 contains Pennington, Middleton, and Chioma fields.
Chevron then re-launched sale of the 6,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day OMLs 86 and 88 last year as it seeks to focus on booming shale production in the U.S.
The fields also have untapped potentials of 55 million oil barrels and 2.8 trillion cubic feet of undeveloped gas reserves.
Other international oil giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil have also sold off some of their onshore and shallow-water oil assets to local companies in Nigeria due to oil theft.
