12 August 2014, Lagos – Shell Nigeria investment into deep water offshore concession which is one of the deliberate policies of boosting both daily and natural reserve for Nigeria has started yielding dividends with the recent production of oil from Bonga North West. The new oil well has the capacity of adding over 40,000 barrels to national oil production.
Before the streaming up of Bonga North West field. Shell in 2005 launched itself in deep-water operation in the country with addition of over 225,000 barrels of oil daily to national reserve, with Bonga field ranked now as a role model and index for measuring success in deep-water oil business in Nigeria.
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd SNEPCO, the arm of Shell Nigeria again started crude oil production from the first well at the Bonga North West deep-water development, off the Nigerian coast, Mr Andrew Brown, Shell’s Upstream International Director, has said.
Brown who spoke in Lagos at the weekend described the production of first oil from the facility as another milestone for the country’s energy industry which is geared towards boosting Nigeria’s oil production and revenue as well as the interests of the stakeholders.
“This is an excellent addition to our deep-water portfolio – a key growth theme for Shell’s world-wide upstream business .It’s also good news for Nigeria, as it is a new source of oil revenues and strengthens Nigeria’s deep-water expertise, a key driver of economic development,” he said.
According to him ,The Bonga project, which began producing oil and gas in 2005, was Nigeria’s first deep-water development in water depths over 1,000 metres. Bonga North West represents a significant step forward for the project. Oil from the Bonga North West sub-sea facilities is transported by a new undersea pipeline to the existing Bonga floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) export facility.
He said, Bonga FPSO has been upgraded to handle the additional oil flow from Bonga North West which, at peak production, is expected to contribute 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, helping to maintain the facility’s overall output.
– Daily Independent