…to deliver 600m/scf to national grid
…doubles oil production

By Sebastine Obasi

The oil mining lease, OML 34, acquired by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NDPC, from Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, in its 2012 divestment programme, has recorded its highest gas production.

This is as the oil production from the oil block has more than doubled to 22,000 barrels of oil per day, bopd, within the period of time. 
Vanguard learnt that production has recently ramped up to 420 million standard cubic feet daily, MSCF/D from its two plants, comprising of 360 MSCF/D and 60MSCF/D for NAG 1 And UGHE plants respectively.

Before the takeover by NPDC, the former operator SPDC was producing an average of 270MMSCF/D and 60MMSCF/D from NAG 1 and UGHE plants respectively.

The asset is predominantly a gas producing field with Utorogu NAG 1 and Ughelli East (UGHE) gas plants as the two running plants prior to the acquisition. Utorogu NAG 1 and UGHE gas plants have an installed capacity of 360 MMSCF/D and 90MMSCF/D respectively.

According to a document obtained by Vanguard, the record has never been achieved since the field came into existence in the 1970s. It also revealed that plans were underway to further increase production from the two fields with the completion of Utorogu NAG 2 plant with an installed capacity of 150MMSCF/D.

NPDC focus is to ramp up, grow and sustain production from the three plants at 450MMSCF/D by the third quarter of 2015. This would make NPDC the second largest gas producer in Nigeria.

It further explained that the NPDC wishes to achieve this feat through the aggressive gas development campaign currently going-on in OML 34.
This involves drilling of gas wells and completing/commissioning of the 150 MMSCF/D capacity NAG II plant in the short term. The NAG II plant is said to be 96 percent completed as at the 4th of June, 2015. The company’s medium term plan is to deliver about 600 MMSCF/D of gas to the National grid to support the Federal Government’s gas to power aspiration by the end of 2015.

Daily oil production also increased to about 22,000 barrels per day, bopd, as against 10,032 barrels per day as at takeover from SPDC.

As regards OML30, production was said to have been increased to 60,000 bopd, against 20,982 bopd average daily net productions as at the time of takeover from SPDC. Six wells were being drilled in OML30, while another eight are lined up for 2016.

It also noted that OML 40 went from zero production to 3,000bopd after the oil field was taken over, adding that the target was to triple production on the field in the coming months.

For OML 42, the NPDC stated that when it took over, only one flow station was producing while four others and a central processing unit were down. It explained that the study to further develop OML 42 had been completed and submitted to the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR.
Since taking over from Shell, NPDC said it had carried out community development activities aimed at gaining the cooperation of the host communities for not just the three assets taken over in 2013, but also the two previous assets, whose operatorship it took over in February 2012.

As part of its obligations to ensure socio-economic development of the host communities, the company in the past one year initiated quick-win projects, as a stopgap for the Implementation of a Global Memorandum of Understanding, GMoU, which is an agreement between NPDC and its host communities.

A total of 94 projects had been identified and agreed with the communities, while 25 of them were completed by the end of the first quarter of 2014.

“The benefits of these partnerships are already being realised.

The Uzere flow station, which had been closed down for two years following a dispute with SPDC, was restarted in the last quarter of 2013. This was made possible following the signing of an Interim MoU on November 19, 2013.

“Based on this interim agreement, the financial benefits accruing to the Uzere cluster have since been paid to the community. The Uzere community is once again enjoying the benefits of peace and development,” NPDC added.