Nigeria’s state oil company signs financing deals with Shell, Chevron on key upstream projects
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said Wednesday that it has signed two major alternative financing deals with Chevron and Shell Nigeria for the development of some key upstream oil assets and projects in Nigeria.
The alternative financing deal with Chevron was for the Sonam project, codenamed Project Falcon, which is expected to develop incremental proven oil reserves of 211 million barrels and proven gas reserves of 1.9 trillion cubic feet within Oil Mining Leases (OML) 90 and 91.
On the other hand, the deal with Shell was on behalf of the NNPC, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Joint Venture. The deal was for Project Santolina in Nigeria and was for an accelerated upstream production comprising 156 development activities across 12 OMLs and 30 fields in the Niger Delta.
In a related development, the corporation disclosed that it would extend the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) from Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire.
According to a statement from the corporation, the planned extension of the pipeline was part of the Federal Government’s West African energy integration policy.
Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, who was represented by the chief operating officer, gas and power, Saidu Mohammed, disclosed this while receiving a delegation from Cote d’Ivoire in Abuja.
Baru explained that the extension of WAGP to Cote d’Ivoire would facilitate easy transmission of gas within the West African sub-region, that the visit would afford the NNPC and Cote d’Ivoire the opportunity to open a new vista for further bilateral discussion which would lead to the growth and development of the oil and gas sector.
He said Nigeria and indeed the NNPC has been into the business of oil and gas exploration and production for over fifty years, stressing that the interface would enable the NNPC to share its vast experiences in the sector with the delegation.