OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, says the corporation has secured a number of alternative funding facilities for the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd, NPDC – the NNPC upstream arm – and some of its Joint Ventures to facilitate the development of some of its assets.
These, according to him, include the N875.75 million for NPDC’s Oil Mining Lease, OML, 65 alternative funding and technical services package with CMES-OMS Petroleum Development Company, and the $3.15 billion alternative financing package with Sterling Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited, SEEPCO, and other partners for the development of NPDC’s OML 13.
Kyari revealed this in Abuja as he also disclosed that the NPDC had since April 1, this year, achieved first oil of about 7,900 barrels per day at the OML 13 acreage as part of the nation’s efforts to achieve its three million barrels per day crude oil production target.
Production is expected to peak at 94,000b/d and 542 million standard cubic feet of per day within four years, he said.
He stated that the NNPC has revved up exploration in the inland basins, culminating in the finding of oil in commercial quantity in the upper Benue Trough, the drilling of Kolmani River 111 well, which had high prospects of oil find, the acquisition of seismic data at the Bida Basin as well as the re-launch of exploration at the Chad Basin.
NNPC obtains circa $1bn to fund NPDC’s upstream operations
The NNPC boss also revealed that one of the disputes which had hampered exploration and production activities in the industry, involving Shell and Belemaoil, which shut-in over 30,000 barrels per day of oil in OML 35, has been resolved.
The corporation, likewise, recorded success in the execution of the Abo OML 125 head of terms, leading to the resolution of issues around most of the deep offshore sharing contracts and paving way for the renewal of OML 125 and further exploration of the lucrative field.
