Yemisi Izuora
Eland Oil & Gas PLC, an oil & gas production and development company has announced that following the successful re-entry of Opuama-3 Eland, through its joint-venture subsidiary Elcrest Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd, together with NPDC, its co-venture on OML 40, production from Opuama-7 well will commence in Q2 2017.
This will be followed by an Early Production System (EPS) on the Gbetiokun Field in the second half of 2017. This is the initial stage of a planned phased development of the Opuama and Gbetiokun fields.
The remaining capex associated with Op-7 is $7m (Net: $3.15m) and the Gb-1 of $16m (Net: $7.2m). Eland’s joint-venture subsidiary Elcrest Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd holds 45 per cent equity in the OML 40 license.
Opuama fields total reserves previously reported in the NSAI 30 June 2015 CPR remain unchanged. However, the significant increase in oil recovery from the existing well inventory (Op-1, Op-3, Op-7 and Gb-1) are expected to lead to less infill wells being required to access the remaining reserves on OML 40 and therefore reducing future total Capex spend.
George Maxwell, chief executive officer, CEO, of Eland while commenting on the development said, “The confirmation of an additional gross 22.6 million barrels from our existing well re-entry strategy is very exciting.
The level of capex investment required to produce this incremental volume is less than a dollar fifty per barrel, contributing to the significant NPV of $186.8 million from the four wells.
This programme will put the Company in a very strong position to move forward with the Opuama infill drilling and the full development of the Gbetiokun and Ubima fields, creating greater value for all our stakeholders.”