Wednesday 18 March 2015

Marginal Field Operators In Nigeria (1)

Good day everyone, hope the week is taking a superb run towards the weekend (which we all care about). Well today we going to look at some marginal fields operated on in Nigeria and give some details into their activities and stakes. 

Marginal fields are oil and gas reserves usually too small for production to be economically viable for large oil companies. They are usually awarded to indigenous companies to explore considering the size of the reserves.Marginal fields contribute about 3% of the countries current production and have had a rough development road mostly due to hard financing and economies of scale as regards project value and extended life. As towards the end of last year marginal fields have averaged at 55,000 bpd and efforts are being made to make this figure higher. A bigger challenge lies in the inability on infrastructure deficits at or around the fields, lack of industry experience, the high cost of money and low depth of money supply in Nigeria, Poor oil metering tools, insecurity and also operational challenges has inhibited the prospects of marginal fields.

Lets look at some of these marginal fields below




Ororo Field (OML 95)


The Ororo Field sits in shallow water offshore Ondo State, Nigeria, in water depths ranging between 23 ft and 27 ft.

The Ororo Field was discovered in 1986 with the drilling of the Ororo-1 well by Chevron, which penetrated 197 ft of hydrocarbons in twelve sandstone reservoirs at points close to the crest of each reservoir structure. These consist of 72ft true vertical thickness (TVT) of net gas pay and 125ft TVT of net oil pay. The Ororo-1 well flow tested at a combined production rate of approximately 2,800 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from two oil producing sands. The recoverable hydrocarbons were most recently estimated to be in excess of 20 million barrels gross in a third party report prepared in 2006. However a more recent survey by Schlumberger indicates that the Ororo Field hydrocarbon in place estimated at 35.2- 44.1 MMstb (P50 - P10 oil-in-place). The P50 - P10 Gas Initially In Place estimated at 396.5 - 557.6 Bscf with Recoverable Gas of 276.9 - 390.66 Bscf (P50 - P10).

Ororo field is 100% owned by Guarantee Petroluem Company Ltd and Owena Oil & Gas in the ratio 55% and 45% respectively. Technical Financing partners are Sirus Petroleum who have an economic interest of 40% and will now commence the initial development work on the field.


Ajapa Field (OML 45, 90)


Nigeria's first producing marginal field, the Ajapa field lies in the heart of the prolific Niger Delta in 30 feet of water, some ten miles west of the onshore Forcados Terminal. The Ajapa Field has a P90 volume of 15.1 MMBO (50°API) and a P10 volume of 75 MMBO recoverable confirmed by one tested well and 3D seismic. Full field development of the Truncated Mean Resource of 40.4 MMBO is forecast to yield a gross peak liquid rate of 17,000 bpd.

Currently producing 2,200BOPD, completed a new well Ajapa 1 Sidetrack 2 in the same reservoir that is currently producing in Ajapa 1 Sidetrack, in late December 2012. Isa-Kutepa’s CEO of the company has stated that OML 90 is not producing due to serious crude theft and partly banks inability to finance marginal field operators. Brittania U had unexpectedly encountered two hydrocarbon reservoirs shallower to the producing sand.one is 25ft Net gas while the other is a 40 ft Net oil sand. Exploration prospects identified from recent 3-D seismic at multiple reservoir levels within the Ajapa block identify an additional reserve potential of 68 MMBO, giving the project a reasonable upside potential of 143 MMBO.

The marginal field license was granted to Brittania-U Nigeria Ltd (B-U) via farm-out from NNPC and Chevron Nigeria in 2004. Syntroleum is the Technical Advisor to Brittania-U and work in conjunction with Brittania-U as the designated operator of the field.


Ogedeh Field (OML 90)


Ogedeh is an oil and gas field located in the shallow water offshore Niger Delta region in Nigeria. It was discovered by Chevron in 1993 on Oil Mining Licence 90 ("OML 90") by the Ogedeh-1 well, which logged oil and gas in a number of zones. The discovery well was not tested but a nearby well flowed over 4,000 barrels oil per day of 49 API oil from two zones at levels similar to those in Ogedeh. Ogedeh is fully covered by 3D seismic and technical analysis indicates that the Ogedeh licence area holds hydrocarbon prospective resources likely to be in the range of 10 to 25 million barrels of oil, with gas reserves in the order of 25 BCF. Ogedeh is located offshore in 40ft of water, approximately 12kms from nearby production infrastructure which is linked directly to the oil export terminal at Forcados.

Bicta Energy Systems have a 40% stake on this field while it's financing partners James Bay Energy Nigeria Limited (previously D&H Energy Nigeria Limited) ("JBENL") received the required ministerial approval for the assignment of the 47% participating interest in the Ogedeh Project while Linetrale controls the remaining 13%.


Akepo Field (OML 90)


Akepo is located offshore, around 15 km off the Nigerian coastline at a water depth of 8 m to 10 m. The License covers an area of 26 km2 (6,425 acres). The field is operated by Sogenal Oil and Gas Limited. The discovery wells on the Akepo structure (Akepo 1 and 1st) were drilled in 1993 by Chevron. The total proven reserves of the Akepo field are estimated at 81 million barrels. The probable reserves are estimated at 410 million barrels and possible reserves at 1.243 billion barrels. The Akepo 1st Well was later successfully re-entered and completed in December, 2009.

In 2006, Exile Resources acquired a 40 % stake in the field as technical and funding partner and was responsible for the field development effort in association with the designated operator. In 2008, Oando Exploration and Production Limited (OEPL) acquired 75% of Exile Resources working interest of 40% equity in the field, in return for funding Exile’s past costs, and financing the future development of the project. Hence, the current participating interests are Sogenal Limited (designated operator) – 60%, Oando (OEPL- Technical Partner) – 30% and Exile Resources – 10% with the Minister of Petroleum Resources Consent obtained in March 2009.


Eremor Field (OML 46)


The Eremor Field, which is located in shallow water offshore Nigeria, was discovered in 1978 by Shell. The discovery well, Eremor-1, encountered three oil and gas zones, the most prominent of which is the D-03 reservoir with 43 feet of net oil sand. It was re-entered for testing in 2005 with the D-03 reservoir testing 2,200 barrels per day of oil with API 22, a low gas to oil ratio and no water. Excel was awarded a 100% interest and operatorship of Eremor in 2003.

In 2007, Excel went into an agreement with Afren who would be responsible of phase-1 of the Eremor project. As of the last week of December 2013, Excel was conducting DST on the two reservoirs in Eremor field. The company had 5,000 barrels of oil, with 0.25% BS&W (base sediment and water), in the tank and still flowing with extended well test. “Production rates cannot be given now because the D-03 reservoir is yet to stabilise due to excessive loss of brine in the reservoir”, company sources whispered. “Which is good. The excessive loss shows we have a good permeability”.

The Company needs to construct early production facility and a two kilometre pipeline to the Brass manifold in Peretorugbene in oil Mining Lease (OML) 46.Excel is expecting to have a 3000bopd of stabilized crude to the manifold as agreed with Shell.

(excerpts from Oby Amaliri, written and edited by Ikechukwu Onyegiri) 

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