Yemisi Izuora
Indigenous oil company, Aiteo has announced plans to spend as much as $5 billion to boost its oil and natural gas production in the next five years.
Aiteo Eastern E&P Co, confirmed plans to drill new oil wells and re-open existing ones as it seeks to raise production, Chief Executive Officer Victor Okoronkwo said in Abuja, Nigeria. It will also seek to increase its stake in a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
“We have a development plan which has been submitted to our joint venture partner NNPC,” he said.
“Our expectation is that in line with the joint venture agreement between us and the federal government, the existing partner will have the right of first refusal,” Okoronkwo said.
Aiteo has a share of 45 per cent in Oil Mining Lease 29, with NNPC holding the remainder.
Aiteo is among Nigerian producers that bought oil leases from majors such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc when overseas operators curbed operations in the West African nation due to oil attacks on infrastructures.
The repeated halting of its Nembe Creek Trunk Line, which runs to Shell’s export terminal for Bonny crude, has cost Aiteo and the government at least $2 billion in revenue over the last two years, Bloomberg quoted Okoronkwo as saying.
Aiteo currently pumps about 90,000 barrels of oil a day and forecasts production of 250,000 barrels in five years under the planned expansion. Daily natural gas production would increase six-fold to 300 million standard cubic feet in the period, Okoronkwo said.