Page 10 - AfrOil Week 13 2022
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AfrOil                                       PERFORMANCE                                               AfrOil



                         “Existential threat”                 crime than to low-scale amateur operations.
                         Speaking  for  IPPG, Chikezie Nwosu, the   “The language is very important, and I think
                         managing director of Waltersmith Petroman,   we use ‘theft’ rather quickly. I don’t think this
                         described the problem of oil theft as perva-  is theft; this is organised criminal activity,” he
                         sive and extensive enough to be an “existential   remarked, according to This Day. “The level
                         threat” to independent producers.    of sophistication in terms of tapping into the
                           Thefts from IPPG’s member companies   pipelines, the distributions, efforts required to
                         peaked at 91% of total volumes loaded in   move hundreds of thousands of barrels a day
                         December 2021, compared with about 4% in   isn’t some guy coming along and tapping into a
                         years past, he reported.             pipeline and taking [a] container [of] crude oil.
                           “The TNP [Trans Niger Pipeline] is the major   It is organised criminality.”
                         issue,” he claimed, according to This Day. “We   Laing added: “As an industry, I know how
                         have seen crude theft grow from single-digit   hard my colleagues work to produce products
                         percentages to reports of 91% in December for   that we need, and to suffer the level of theft that
                         some of the operators who produce into the   we have is disheartening. But more importantly,
                         TNP, 75% in January, and the February report   it is a threat to investments – a threat to the
                         we got has an average of 82%.”       health of the industry and wealth of the nation. It
                                                              is important that the stakeholders integrate their
                         “Organised criminality”              activities and their thoughts. As OPTS, we have
                         Speaking for OPTS, Richard Laing, the manag-  met with a number of stakeholders over the last
                         ing director of ExxonMobil Nigeria, said that oil   several months, and we want to make sure that
                         theft was, in many cases, more akin to organised   whatever we do is joined up and effective.” ™


       Eni raises reserve estimate for




       Ndungu field offshore Angola






            ANGOLA       ENI (Italy) has revised its reserve estimate for
                         Ndungu, a field within Block 15/06 offshore
                         Angola, upwards to 800mn-1bn barrels of oil
                         equivalent (boe) following the successful com-
                         pletion of an appraisal well.
                           The company said in a statement published
                         on March 28 that preliminary data from the
                         Ndungu-2 well indicated that the field was much
                         larger than the initial estimate of 250-300mn
                         boe. Instead, it described Ndungu – along with
                         Agogo, another field within the same licence
                         area – as one of its two largest discoveries within
                         Block 15/06.
                           The Italian major also reported that the well
                         had encountered 40 metres of net oil pay within
                         the Lower Oligocene layer. Additionally, it said
                         that the reservoir had good petrophysical prop-
                         erties and had been confirmed to be an exten-
                         sion of the reservoir found in the Ndungu-1
                         exploration well.
                           “An intensive data acquisition was performed   Ndungu will be connected to the western production hub at Block 15/06 (Image: Eni)
                         to assess the full potential of the discovery,” it
                         stated.                              (FPSO) unit, which is also connected to the Cin-
                           Eni and its partners in the Block 15/06 pro-  guvu, Mpungi, Nzanza, Ochigufu, Sangos and
                         ject began early production at the Ndungu field   Vandumbu fields in the western section of Block
                         in February 2022 within the framework of their   15/06 via subsea tie-backs.
                         Infrastructure-Led Exploration (ILX) pro-  The vessel is capable of handling 100,000 bar-
                         gramme. They have already brought one devel-  rels per day (bpd) of oil and has been operating
                         opment well on stream and aim to launch the   since 2014.
                         second in the fourth quarter of this year.  “In parallel, appraisal whilst producing will
                           These wells will be supported by the Ngoma   continue [in order] to optimise returns and min-
                         floating production, storage and off-loading   imise risks,” the Italian company noted.



       P10                                      www. NEWSBASE .com                         Week 13   30•March•2022
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