Page 9 - AfrOil Week 12 2021

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

According to the statement, ADM will complete the drafting of a new CPR, which will be ready
the acquisition of its 51% stake in K.O.N.H. UK within a few months.
in before the end of the second quarter of 2021. ADM noted that four wells had already been
This will allow it to participate in the develop- drilled at Barracuda. The RSA consortium
ment of Barracuda, as Noble Hill-Network Ltd intends to drill a fifth well in the fourth quarter
(NHNL), a subsidiary of K.O.N.H. UK., holds of 2021 and hopes to begin commercial produc-
a 70% stake in the RSA covering that site. “The tion before the end of the year at a rate of around
RSA represents a type of service contract com- 4,000 barrels per day. It has said that output lev-
monly used in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, els might rise to 23,000 bpd if it moves ahead
by which NHNL will be compensated in cash with plans to drill another six wells by 2026 and
out of profits (calculated based on agreed-upon to build a new pipeline along a 12-km route to
measures and outcomes) generated from devel- the Brass Export Terminal.
opment of the field,” it explained. Osamede Okhomina, CEO of ADM Energy,
In turn, ADM will provide technical and called the deal “a compelling investment oppor-
financial support to NHNL’s shareholders, tunity that provides ADM with the potential to
known collectively as the RSA consortium, in access near-term production upside at minimal
exchange for “235% of approved capex to be risk.” He continued: “The Barracuda field in
recovered, plus a 15% net profit interest (NPI) OML 141 fits our strategy to target near-term
from the field,” the statement said. The consor- production assets in proven oil and gas juris-
tium will also have the right to collect the NPI dictions and will establish ADM Energy as a
throughput Barracuda’s operating life and will multi-asset player in Nigeria. We will bring
also have the option of acquiring a participating technical and financial support to the consor-
stake in OML 141, it added. tium to develop the asset and take it into pro-
The RSA consortium is optimistic about the duction in the second half of this year. We have
Barracuda oilfield’s prospects. According to a structured the deal to receive an accelerated cash
competent person’s report (CPR) drawn up by entitlement once the field is in production, with
Ryder Scott in 2016, the site may contain 1.3bn the intention that the cost of the first well will
barrels of oil in place (OIP) in P50 reserves. be supported by our financing partner, Dubai
The shareholders have made arrangements for Bridge Investments.” ™

PERFORMANCE
NNPC head comments on exploration

campaigns in northern Nigeria

LIBYA MELE Kyari, the group managing director of
Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC),
said last week that the expansion of exploration
work in the northern part of the country was
helping the company meet its goals with respect
to increasing proven oil reserves.
Speaking during an industry conference in
Ibadan last week, Kyari noted that NNPC had
ramped up its exploration work in northern
Nigeria in 2016, after President Muhammadu
Buhari ordered it to bring the country’s proven
reserves up from 36bn barrels to 40bn barrels.
The company has already carried out explora-
tion programmes in the Benue, Bida, Gongola
and Sokoto inland basins and is now reviewing
data in preparation for exploration work in the
Dahomey basin and at the Anambra plaform,
he said. Oil has been found in the Middle Benue Trough (Image: Energy Geoscience)
Kyari did not go into detail about the results
of these efforts. However, he did say that NNPC Benue Trough.
was making progress on this front, especially “[We] have continued to make giant strides
since the discovery of commercial crude oil in inland rift basin exploration,” he was quoted
reserves in the Kolmani section of the Middle as saying by This Day.

Week 12 24•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9