By Clara Nwachukwu
LAGOS—French oil giant, Total, yesterday, announced that its Nigerian subsidiary, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd, and its partner, Conoil Producing Nigeria Ltd discovered new  hydrocarbons in its Oil Mining Lease, OML 136, offshore western Niger Delta.  

However, Total, in a statement, yesterday, did not disclose how much oil was found in the oil block (formerly Oil Prospecting License, OPL 458)  in 1992, after the company had successfully proven itself as a major indigenous player in the oil and gas sector hitherto dominated by foreign companies.

The French company merely said the oil was “discovered in the central portion” of the block identified as the Agge-3B.T1 well, “located in a water depth of 140 metres and reached a total depth of 2,710 metres.”

Earlier find

The oil was discovered in the same well, in which Conoil had earlier in May, announced huge gas deposit discovery, also without indicating how much gas reserves the well holds.

Conoil stated that it made “the discovery in Agge-3B. T1 well while appraising an undrilled compartment of the Agge field complex.

”The well was located in a water depth of 140 metres and reached a total depth of 2,710 meters, below mean sea level. The newly- discovered gas reserve has a gross thickness in excess of 160 meters.”

But reports said that the production test over the lower intervals of the new pay zones yielded an impressive volume of 24.2x MMScft/d on a 36/64? choke.

Total acquisition

Total, farmed in and acquired 40 per cent interest in OML 136, after it signed an agreement with Conoil for the deal in July 2007, while the latter, as the operator, retained the higher stake of 60 per cent, which was approved by regulatory authorities.

Under the agreement, Elf became the technical advisor, while both parties will jointly conduct additional exploration of  the lease, as well as appraisal and development of any discoveries.

At the time, Total said, “The acquisition is in line with an integrated strategy of developing upstream natural gas resources that can be monetised via downstream projects, in particular liquefied natural gas production projects.”

The oil block

At the time of sealing the deal, about 14 wells had already been drilled in the block, producing two large natural gas discoveries, Toju and Akarino.

Appraisal of gas fields was to determine the block’s development potential.

OML 138 covers an area of 1,295 square kilometers, and lies around 60 kilometers offshore in water depths of 80 to 300 meters.

Total operations

In Nigeria, Total has been operating in exploration and production for about 50 years, under a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in OMLs 55, 99, 100 and 102.

The company is equally active in the liquefied natural gas, LNG business through its participations in Nigeria LNG (15%) and in the Brass LNG (17%) project, as well as Obite and Afam power generation projects.

Looking past 2010, plans to commission a seventh train increasing global capacity of the plant to 30 million metric tonnes and to develop Brass LNG (10 million metric tonnes) should strengthen Total’s position as one of the region’s major LNG players.

In carrying out its operations, the company promises to promote “the development of local communities through its activities and actively encourage the use of Nigerian resources whenever possible, over and above local regulations.”