Chika Amanze-Nwachuku
Fourteen firms have submitted funding and technical services bids for the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 119, a twin offshore block operated by the upstream subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC).
Speaking at the public opening of bids for the funding and technical services entity (FTSE) in Abuja yesterday, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services, Mr. Faruk Sa’id, stated that the OML 119 was one of the corporation’s critical projects which aligned wholly with the federal government’s aspirations of boosting crude oil and gas production, growing reserves, and monetising the nation’s enormous gas resources.
Although the corporation did not disclose the names of the firms that submitted the bids, a statement by its Ag. Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Samson Makoji quoted the GMD as saying that “the selection process for the potential FTSE was transparent and in strict compliance with extant laws and overriding national interest.”
“The selection process for the potential FTSE was transparent and in strict compliance with extant laws and overriding national interest, adding that it was also in tandem with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and the TAPE agenda of the NNPC,” Makoji quoted Kyari to have said.
In his remarks, the Group General Manager, Supply Chain Management, Mr. Abdulhamid Aliyu, assured the firms that the selection process would remain transparent and fair.
OML 119 is made up of a twin offshore block, Okono and Okpoho fields. The oil block is located approximately 50 kilometres offshore South-eastern Niger Delta.
The NPDC had revealed that Okono Okpoho alone was producing 91.90 per cent of the NPDC wholly owned operated assets or 49.4 per cent of the total NPDC production.
“Production from the NPDC wholly operated assets amounted to 9,781,195 barrels (or 53.75 per cent of the total NPDC production) with Okono Okpoho (OML 119) alone producing 91.90 per cent of the NPDC wholly owned operated assets or 49.4 per cent of the total NPDC production,” the company said then.
The two producing fields on the block, Okpoho and Okono, were discovered by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in 1978 and 1983 respectively. Despite encouraging well results, the fields’ development did not start until 2001, when Agip Energy and Natural Resources (AENR) signed a modified service contract with the NPDC. The project, located in shallow water, utilises an FPSO which is more commonly deployed in deep water. The Okono field produces oil from subsea wells tied-back to the Mystras FPSO located at the field. Oil from Okpoho is produced via a platform linked to the FPSO by pipeline and exported from the FPSO by shuttle tanker.
