Yemisi Izuora
Nigeria is accelerating the pace to take Final Investment Decision (FID) on Shell-operated Bonga North oil project before 2025.
The project is expected to unlock about 350 million barrels of oil equivalent of Nigerian oil reserves and extend the life of the Shell-operated Bonga floating production, storage and offloading vessel for an additional 15 years.
Partners in the project include the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, Eni.
Shell holds the biggest working interest at 55 per cent, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data.
The upcoming field development will help Nigeria boost output amid divestment of onshore assets by International Oil Companies (IOCs).
Nigeria and its foreign oil partners, including Shell, are earlier set to take a FID on the Bonga North offshore oil project before the end of 2024.
In a statement October 20, the Minister of State for Oil Heineken Lokpobiri said efforts by the government to provide a conducive environment for investors had set the stage for the partners’ “recent approval for investment in the Bonga North Offshore project before year end.”
Lokpobiri said he recently held talks with Nicolas Terraz, the president of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria, in Abuja.
President Bola Tinubu, has raised an ambition to increase Nigerian oil production and therefore its vital oil revenues.
Shell had said previously that the Bonga North development would commence this year and would involve the drilling of over 40 subsea wells.
Bonga is Nigeria’s first deepwater oil field, with the capacity to produce 225,000 b/d of crude oil and 150 MMcf/d of gas.
The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Bonga expansion plan, along with the Bonga Southwest, is key to the UK energy company’s 10-year operating strategy in the country, with a peak target of 370,000 b/d of oil from Shell’s Nigerian deepwater assets by 2032.
Shell has agreed to sell its Nigerian onshore business to Renaissance, a consortium of five mostly-Nigerian companies, after years of spills and theft, but the transaction has faced regulatory hurdles and delays.
Nigeria has struggled to meet its OPEC+ output quota in recent years due to underinvestment, crude theft, field maturation and an exodus of international oil companies from its troubled onshore.
It pumped roughly 1.5 million b/d in recent months, well below the capacity of some 2.2 million b/d. The country’s quota was reduced to 1.5 million b/d in January from 1.74 million b/d.
The country aims to ramp up crude output to around 2 million b/d by the end of 2024.