Nigeria: New Shell and Bonga partners deal to unlock over $10bn investment

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed an agreement with partners in the OML118 licence, the home of the Bonga field located offshore Nigeria, which will unlock over $10 billion in investments. 
The partners are Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, and Eni. Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) has 55 interest and is the operator, ExxonMobil has 20 per cent, Total holds 12.5 per cent, and Eni’s Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited has the remaining 12.5 per cent under a production sharing contract with the NNPC. 

The signing ceremony was held at NNPC Towers in Nigeria on Tuesday. 
NNPC said that the signing of the agreement marked a watershed in the administration of deepwater operations in Nigeria and that over $10 billion of investment would be unlocked as a result of this development.

Through these agreements, the NNPC group and the contractors have settled the long-standing disputes that have bedevilled the PSC administration and entered into a new PSC with clearly aligned terms.

NNPC also added that this renewed relationship would create the stability required for investments in the deepwater terrain. It will also facilitate the $16 billion Bonga South West Aparo (BSWA) Project investment by SNEPCo.
The Bonga field, which began producing oil and gas in 2005, was Nigeria’s first deep-water development in depths of more than 1,000 metres.

The Bonga North West development began producing oil in August 2014. The field is located around 120km off the coast of Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea. Since then, all the remaining five wells have been completed and are now on stream.

Oil is transported by a subsea pipeline to the existing Bonga FPSO. Bonga Phase 3, an expansion of the Bonga Main development, started production in October 2015. 

According to its latest investor presentation, Shell is currently in the pre-FID stage for several related projects, namely Bonga Main life extension & upgrade, Bonga North Tranche 1, and Bonga South West. 

The South West field is located 12 km southwest of the main field in the southern part of the Niger Delta. The field lies 160 km southwest of Warri, some 130 km offshore, in water depths ranging from 1160m to 1410m.

Source: Offshore Energy