Yemisi Izuora
MX Oil Plc, on Wednesday confirmed settlement of the balance for the acquisition of the OML 113 licence, part of the Aje field in Nigeria.
The oil and gas investing company has paid the full balance of USD550,000, of which USD137,000 had already been settled, to the government of Nigeria.
“I am delighted to announce that we have now formally completed the consent process with the federal government of Nigeria and this formalises the legal title in our Aje asset,” Alliance News quotes Chief Executive Officer Stefan Olivier as saying.
MX Oil in February had received approval from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for the renewal of the licence for another term of 20 years. The consent was conditional on the company completing the acquisition.
The company had acquired an indirect interest in the licence when it purchased Jacka Resources Nigeria Holdings Ltd in 2016.
The OML 113 licence covers an area of 960km² and contains several prospects, including the Jubilee and Tweneboa fields.
OML 113 was originally known as Oil Operating License 309 and was awarded to YFP in 1991 to encourage the growth of Nigerian oil industry. Following the successful discovery of the Aje field, the licence was converted to OML 113 in 1998 with a term of 20 years.
Aje was discovered by the Aje-1 well in 1996. The well encountered oil and gas over three zones of the Cretaceous Turonian age. It flowed at the rate of 60.2 million standard cubic feet of gas a day (mmscfd), 1,729 barrels of condensate a day (bcpd) and 2,389 barrels of oil a day (bpd).