OpeOluwani Akintayo
03 August 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — SweetcrudeReports has learnt that the Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Agip plan to spend about $21 billion on Nigeria’s Bonga oil field.
According to a confidential document obtained by this newspaper, Agip will invest about $10 billion while Royal Dutch Shell will spend between $10 billion-11 billion on the field.
The document indicated that those areas of the field to be invested in by Agip and Shell are reserved and “dedicated” projects on the Bonga oil field.
“There are some dedicated projects in the Bonga oil field and Italy’s Agip plans to spend about $10 billion while Royal Dutch Shell is hoping to spend $10–11bn on the field.
It added that Nigeria “is fairly close to identifying dedicated investments upstream” and that “Downstream is a challenge” in the sector.
The Bonga Field is located in license block OPL 212, off the Nigerian coast, which was renamed OML 118 in February 2000.
The field covers approximately 60 square kilometres in an average water depth of 1,000 metres (3,300 feet).
The field produced via a floating production storage and offloading, FPSO, vessel, produces both petroleum and natural gas; the petroleum is offloaded to tankers while the gas is piped back to Nigeria where it is exported via a liquefied natural gas, LNG, plant.
The field, operated by Shell Nigeria, has ExxonMobil, Nigerian Agip and Total Nigeria as partners. Shell owns 55 percent of the license, ExxonMobil, 20 percent; Nigerian Agip, 12.5 percent and Total Nigeria, 12.5 percent.