Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 46

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According to Timipre Sylva, the country’s min- He said: “The well has been killed with brine
ister of state for petroleum resources, Abuja has solution and is under control now. There is no
a good chance of securing the passage of the law pressure in the well now, and it will be observed
before the end of the first quarter of 2021. for 24 hours to check if there is any amount of gas
In related news, the Nigeria LNG (NLNG) con- migration and pressure build-up.”
sortium has said it expects to raise the volume of The developer experienced a blowout at the
LPG reserved for the domestic market to 450,000 well on May 27 after it tried to bring a new reser-
tonnes in 2021, up from current levels of 350,000 voir on stream. This led to “uncontrollable” flows
tonnes per year (tpy). The increase is in line with of gas and condensate that eventually caught
the federal government’s efforts to promote the use fire the following month, killing two OIL fire-
of LPG as cooking gas, said Tony Attah, NLNG’s fighters and destroying roughly 30 homes. OIL
managing director. only managed to get the well fire under control
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana has in mid-September, with Hazarika noting at the
reportedly ordered Eni of Italy to unitise the off- time that well-killing operations were to begin
shore Sankofa field with Afina, a licence area in three to four weeks. OIL’s slow pace
assigned to a private Ghanaian company, Spring- The company’s slow pace in terms of tackling
field Exploration and Production. In a letter viewed the well fire has attracted criticism from the gov- in tackling
last week by Bloomberg, Energy Minister John-Pe- ernment, while also triggering local protests. the well fire
ter Amewu said that his ministry was issuing this A government-order investigation into the
demand because the two companies had failed to blow out and subsequent explosion of the well has attracted
work out a joint plan for development, in line with slammed the company’s response to the disaster
previous instructions from Accra. in July. The commission said OIL had not only criticism from
Further west, a new investor is set to join the failed to properly plan, execute and supervise a
consortium that is developing the Sangomar oil- number of critical operations but had also failed the Indian
field offshore Senegal. Australia’s FAR Ltd said last to secure several government approvals prior to government,
week that it had agreed to sell its 15% stake in RSSD spudding the well almost a decade and a half ago.
to India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) for $66.58mn, Protestors, meanwhile, have disrupted work while also
with the possibility of further payments following at the company’s drill sites and workover loca-
the start of production. The proceeds of the deal tions across the state. This has led to lost oil and triggering local
will allow FAR to make up for its failure to pay its gas production, and the company said in its latest
own share of expenses over the last few months. quarterly report last week that the disaster had protests
cost it more than $30.5mn as of late September.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Despite various operational pressures, the
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for company announced a new gas discovery last
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor. week. OIL said on November 13 that it had
struck a gas via the Dinjan-1 well in its Tinsukia
Asia: OIL extinguishes well fire petroleum mining lease (PML), which is located
State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) has finally extin- in the Upper Assam Basin. The discovery, made
guished the well fire at Baghjan, a natural gas and at some point in the first half of financial year
condensate field in Assam state, more than five 2020-2021, flowed at a rate of 115,000 cubic
months after the initial explosion. OIL spokes- metres per day during testing.
man Tridiv Hazarika said on November 15
that the fire, which started on June 9, had been If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
“doused completely” and that the company was Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
working to cap the Baghjan-5 well. NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor.

Week 46 19•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11