7 November 2011, Sweetcrude, Abuja – UK-listed exploration and producing company, Afren, says it has secured ministerial approval for the acquistion of a stake in a Nigeria’s OML 26 and would be sealing the deal by the end of 2011.
Last year, Afren announced that First Hydrocarbon Nigeria, the indigenous Nigerian upstream oil and gas company in which Afren holds a 45% interest, has reached Definitive Agreements with Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Total E&P Nigeria and Nigeria Agip Oil Company, for the acquisition of OML 26, located in Delta State, onshore Nigeria.
‘We’ve received ministerial consent, we’ve received our waiver of pre-emption rights and we’re in the final stages of closing this,’ Chief Executive Osman Shahenshah told Reuters in an interview.
‘We’re fully on track to close by the end of the year. Nothing’s changed,’ Shahenshah added.
Shahenshah also said that he was confident Afren would meet its target of exiting the year with total group production of around 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) after ramping up production from its Ebok field, also in Nigeria.
‘Ebok’s going well. Earlier in the year we had some delays but it’s all going very well now,’ he said. Afren said in July it expected full-year production to average between 25,000 and 30,000 boepd, down from the 40,000 boepd it forecast in May.
