CHEVRON has unveiled plans to auction its stake in Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 83 and 85 offshore Nigeria. The oil fields are situated in shallow water offshore Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta and have reserves of about 250 million barrels of oil and 14.1billion cubic metres of gas. The General Manager (Policy, Government and Public Affairs) of the company, Deji Haastrup, who confirmed the planned divestment to The Guardian Sunday, said the move was part of the company’s continuous evaluation of opportunities and the need to prioritise its portfolio. He assured that the multinational oil firm would implement the divestment in line with the local content law, as indigenous investors are considered the preferred. Chevron acquired OML 83 (Anyala field) and OML 85 (Madu field) after its acquisition of Texaco. The company holds a 40 per cent interest in each of the two OMLs under a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Madu and Anyala fields were originally discovered in 1993 by Texaco, but development was deferred in the 1990s because of cost calculations. Chevron began a new development plan in 2004 due to the strengthening of oil prices, but in spite of the flurry of activities, neither field has been fully developed nor is in production. In 2012, Chevron’s net daily production in Nigeria averaged 238,000 barrels of crude oil, 4.6mn cubic metres of natural gas and 4,000 barrels of LPG. Chevron’s move is the latest in the pool of divestment by the oil multinationals in recent times. The sale follows the divestment by Shell, Total and ENI of their joint venture onshore interests in the country.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:43:08 +0000
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