West Africa Exploration and Production Company, an upstream subsidiary of the Dangote Group, is stepping up efforts to unlock more than 1.6 billion barrels of oil across its Nigerian assets, with plans to ramp up production and put gas monetisation infrastructure in place within the next 24 months.
The company’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Olajumoke Cecilia Ajayi, disclosed this at the just-concluded AOW Energy Conference in Accra, Ghana, during a session titled ‘The Future of the African Operator: Building the IOCs of Tomorrow’.
According to a statement on Sunday, Ajayi said WAEP’s Oil Mining Leases 71 and 72, previously operated by Shell, represented a substantial resource opportunity, with more than 1.6 billion barrels of oil in place and about 1.9 trillion cubic feet of gas, based on discoveries to date.
She said the company had adopted a phased strategy to revive production from its brownfield assets, generate early cash flow and reinvest the proceeds in wider field redevelopment.
“The first thing is to look at the low-hanging fruit, the short-term oil gains, generate cash flow from that, put it back into the assets and start redevelopment. And that’s exactly what is happening currently,” Ajayi said.
The WAEP boss said the company had moved into the execution phase of its development plans, having signed contracts for three jack-up rigs, with drilling expected to begin in December. “We will be drilling to ramp up production and also bring out the value in the asset,” she said.
Ajayi said the drilling campaign was being supported by six field development plan studies currently underway, which would provide the basis for a series of “back-to-back developments” across the OML 71 and OML 72 portfolio.
The first thing is to look at the low-hanging fruit, the short-term oil gains, generate cash flow from that, put it back into the assets and start redevelopment. And that’s exactly what is happening currently,” Ajayi said.
The WAEP boss said the company had moved into the execution phase of its development plans, having signed contracts for three jack-up rigs, with drilling expected to begin in December. “We will be drilling to ramp up production and also bring out the value in the asset,” she said.
Ajayi said the drilling campaign was being supported by six field development plan studies currently underway, which would provide the basis for a series of “back-to-back developments” across the OML 71 and OML 72 portfolio.