Yemisi Izuora
Lekoil Ltd said it has moved to the second phase of its drilling campaign at Otakikpo field in Nigeria following a swing to profit in the first half of 2018.
The oil & gas exploration company swung to a pretax profit of USD4.0 million in the six months to the end of June compared to a GBP13.6 million loss reported a year earlier, as revenue multiplied to USD22.4 million from USD7.0 million.
Lekoil said production from Otakikpo field totalled 6,000 barrels of oil per day upon completion of the first phase of drilling programme. For the second phase, the company plans to drill five wells with a prospective first well spudded by the end of 2018.
Current production profile data suggests average production of around 20,000 barrels of oil daily, Lekoil said, which is expected to be achieved between 2020 and 2022.
“Otakikpo is a high quality producing asset, with an impeccable safety record,” said Chief Executive Lekan Akinyanmi.
“As a company, we are looking forward to bringing the field into phase two of development as we look to move closer to our goal of achieving production of 20,000 barres of oil per day during 2020,” added Akinyanmi.