Norwegian major reaffirms interest to grow Nigeria’s OML 128, 129

Solomon Ezeme

The Norwegian oil major, Equinor, formerly Statoil, operating in Nigeria, has restated commitment to improve its oil and gas production performance through renewed talks with its partners in the Agbami – Ekoli oilfield in OML 128. The asset is Nigeria’s first Deep offshore producing facility and is operated under a Production Sharing Contract arrangement with Chevron as the operator.

Ola Morten Aanestad, Equinor’s spokesperson on international upstream, made this known in an exclusive chat with EnergyDay.

The international oil company which has been in Nigeria since 1992, is making this decision about a year after it won a long-running legal battle over profit from its stake in the Agbami oilfield against a former consultant John Abebe, who was seeking 1.5% of profit from Equinor’s 20.21% stake in Agbami. The oilfield pumps close to 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day. At current prices, the stake is worth roughly $2 million per day.

A quick check by EnergyDay, revealed that Equinor has a 20.21 percent stake in the OML 128 Agbami oil field, while Chevron is the operator with 67.30% interest

The field is owned by the terms of a Deepwater Production-Sharing contract (PSC) between Chevron and Famfa Oil Limited (owned by Folorunsho Alakija) . The production license for the field will expire in 2024.

OML 128 has been developed using subsea wells and is the world’s largest floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The FPSO can store up to 2.2 million barrels of oil and will be on location for more than 20 years.

Equinor’s spokesperson in the statement also said that the company, in line with the Federal Government’s “Decade of Gas” goals, is about to revamp its Nnwa-Doro and Bilah gas and condensate discoveries, part of the OML 129 located in the central part of the Niger Delta.

He said, “Consistent with our global strategy and priorities, Equinor is working closely with the operator of Agbami to improve the assets carbon footprint. A current key focus area is to reduce flaring.

“Nigeria has declared this to be the decade of gas. In this context, Equinor is working closely with partners, government and other stakeholders to improve incentives for deep water gas developments. Whereas the PIA is a step in the right direction, development of deep water non-associated gas will rely on fiscal and commercial incentives, as well as satisfactory off-take and market conditions,” he said.

EnergyDay’s check showed Nnwa-Doro discovery is predominantly a gas rich asset with marginal oil, Bilah is a gas and condensate discovery. Both discoveries remain undeveloped as of today.