14 January 2016, Abuja—The Joint Finance Team of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and its Joint Venture Partners, Chevron Nigeria Limited, were yesterday, named the winner of the Thomson Reuters/PFI Magazine ‘Africa and Middle East Oil Deal of the Year Award for 2015.’
The NNPC in a statement signed by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, stated that the award is in recognition of the $1.2 billion multi-year drilling financing package for 36 Offshore/Onshore Oil wells under the NNPC/CNL Joint Venture initiated under the Accelerated Upstream Financing Programme executed at a signing ceremony in London in September, 2015.
He added that the award was in recognition for the effort at conceptualizing, structuring and delivering an over-subscribed deal in a challenging macro-economic environment.
According to Alegbe, the initiative was designed by the NNPC to address the perennial challenge experienced by the Federal Government in providing its counter-part funding of JV upstream activities.
He said: “Codenamed Project Cheetah, the $1.2 billion alternative financing package, was the first to combine funding of both oil production as well as domestic gas to support power generation in Nigeria from a medley of carefully sequenced offshore and onshore wells.”
He said the deal is projected to fund 36 wells and deliver 41,000 barrels of crude oil per day and projected peak incremental production of 127 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) in the years ahead.
Alegbe also stated that the package is projected to generate between $2 billion and $5 billion of incremental revenues to the Nigerian government over the life of the project, subject to prevailing oil price in the upcoming years.