Page 8 - AfrOil Week 37

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The company, which is the listed arm of state- If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
(CNOOC), owns 100% of the Nanbao 35-2 oil- NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor.
field. The S1 area’s production facilities include
an unmanned wellhead platform, which has DMEA: Nigerian graft claims
been tied back to Nanbao 35-2’s existing pro- Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC)
duction infrastructure. The project is located at has denied that the budget of its Ajaokuta-Ka-
an average water depth of 17 metres. duna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline was inflated by
CNOOC Ltd said at the start of the year it $1.53bn. NNPC was responding to an article by
aimed to bring on stream eight domestic projects Nigerian daily Point Blank News on September
as well as two overseas developments. 7, which said the Bureau for Public Procurement
The domestic projects included the Penglai (BPP) had uncovered evidence of corruption.
19-3 oilfield Block 4 adjustment/Penglai19-9 oil- NNPC drove up pipe costs for the project from
field phase II, Qinhuangdao 33-1 South oilfield $513 to $3,000 per metre, it said.
phase I, Bozhong 19-6 natural gas field pilot area, These allegations are “false, baseless and
Luda 16-3/21-2 joint development project, Nan- unfounded,” NNPC said in a statement, adding
bao 35-2 oilfield S1 area, Jinzhou 25-1 oilfield it was considering legal action. The BPP itself has
6/11 area, Liuhua 29-1 gas field development denied the discovery of graft at the project.
project and Liuhua 16-2 oilfield/20-2 oilfield The 614-km AKK pipeline is due to deliver
joint development. up to 56mn cubic metres per day of gas to power
CNOOC Ltd said in January that its projected plants in the states of Abuja, Kaduna and Kano.
capital expenditure was CNY85-95bn ($12.49- These stations are to be built as part of Nigeria’s
13.95bn) and that it would drill 227 exploration programme for expanding the share of gas in its
wells and collect around 27,000 square km of 3D electricity mix.
seismic data. The company has since trimmed its Over in Iraq, the government is in negotia-
planned capex by 11% to CNY75-85bn ($11.02- tions with Italian oil major Eni on the construc-
12.49bn), with the majority of cuts targeting tion of a 300,000 bpd refinery in the country’s
foreign ventures. However, some reduction in south-west, its oil minister said last week. The
domestic spending and output is expected. plant would be supplied with oil from the nearby
The S1 area is understood to be the company’s Zubair field, which Eni operates with a 41.6%
fourth Bohai project to be brought on stream this stake. Iraq has been looking to build out its refin-
year, with reports suggesting that both drilling ing sector for decades in order to cut down on
in the Bozhong 19-6 natural gas discovery and fuel imports, but progress has been slow because
construction of onshore facilities for the Jinzhou of conflict and financing difficulties. Baghdad
25-1 oilfield 6/11 area are underway. wants the Iraqi private sector to step in and take
CNOOC Ltd is not the only state major to a 20% interest in the proposed new plant, as the
be favouring domestic projects over interna- government currently lacks the resources to play
tional assets, with both PetroChina and Sinopec a role.
announcing similar capex cutting strategies. The
central government has called on the country’s If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
oil and gas producers to boost output in order to the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East,
safeguard the country’s energy security. then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 16•September•2020