Oando announces ‘significant gas discovery’ in Niger Delta

Oando PLC through its upstream subsidiary Oando Energy Resources (OER) on Wednesday said it has made a significant gas and condensate discovery in its fields in the Niger Delta.

A disclosure sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange said the project is a joint venture arrangement among the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC (an affiliate of Italian oil major, Eni), and Oando.

Details showed that the NNPC owns 60 per cent stake in the project, while Oando and NAOC, the operator controls 20 percent each.

The discoveries were made in the deeper sequences of the Obiafu-Obrikom fields, in OML61, onshore Niger Delta, the oil firm said.

The Obiafu-41 Deep appraisal/exploration well has reached a total depth of 4.374m encountering an important gas and condensate accumulation within the deltaic sequence of Oligocene age comprising more than 130m of high quality hydrocarbonbearing sands, it said.

The company added that the find amounts to about 1 trillion cubic feet of gas and 60 million barrels of associated condensate in the deep drilled sequences.

“The discovery has further potential that will be assessed with the next appraisal campaign,” Oando said in its disclosure. “The well can deliver in excess of 100 million standard cubic feet/day of gas and 3,000 barrels/day of associated condensates.”

The discovery is part of a drilling campaign planned by the Joint Venture aimed at exploring near-field and deep pool opportunities as immediate time to market opportunities.

OER disclosed that it is positive that the discovery will have an impact on its gas reserves.

“The impact will be determined and communicated to the market on conclusion of the next annual independent reserves and resources evaluation,” it added.

Eni had also made the announcement of the discovery last week.

Eni has been present in Nigeria since 1962, with operated and non-operated production, development and exploration activities on a total of 30,049 square kilometers in the onshore and offshore areas of the Niger Delta.

In 2018, Eni’s equity to the joint venture hydrocarbon production amounted to 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.