Yemisi Izuora
Eland Oil & Gas Chief executive George Maxwell has predicted a significant production increase from the Opuama oil field in 2017.
The company told investors that new programmes are set to grow its production substantially which currently averaged more than 330,000 barrels of crude since January, following the restart of production from the Opuama-3 well only.
So far, 160,000 barrels of oil have been delivered to the export terminal while some 160,000 presently awaits imminent injection.
Some 154,173 barrels have been sold at an average price of US$53.14 per barrel, bringing in US$8mln.
Crude produced at Opuama is transported by a barging operation, and the company notes there had been temporary downtime to allow for maintenance of its floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
The downtime was also used to modify the shipping operation, with modifications made to mooring systems to help cater for higher volumes and to better deal with tides.
“The achievement of getting 120m ocean going oil tankers to run a continuous cycle through the Nigerian river system should not be underestimated and whilst we will continue to implement operational efficiency we could not be more delighted and excited with the way it has begun,” said chief executive George Maxwell.
Export success has de-risked crude monetisation, “The success of establishing an alternative export route has considerably de-risked our crude monetisation and has ensured that we will never again have lengthy production downtime that resulted from a single route to market.”
Production has averaged 8,000 barrels per full work days for the period since the January restart.
Eland expects production to restart by the end of next week.
In April, the company expects to start water handling operations, allowing production to come online from the Opuama-1 well which will take group output to around 11,500 bop.
New work-over programmes are planned, for the Opuama-7 well, and it is expected that it could deliver another 6,000 bopd, meanwhile a programme on the Gbetiokun-1 is expected to add 7,800 bopd.
Elsewhere, Eland plans to start development on the Ubima early production system in September, the end of Nigeria’s wet season, once roads and well sites are prepared.
Maxwell added: “2017 brings huge opportunity for us to significantly increase production, capitalising on our earlier success from the re-entry programs, prior to new drilling opportunities.”