Nigeria’s push to revive investment in its deepwater oilfields gained fresh momentum on Monday as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and its partners signed agreements expected to move the proposed Bonga Southwest/Aparo project, estimated to attract up to $21bn in investment, closer to a Final Investment Decision.
The project, located in Oil Mining Lease 118, is expected to become one of Nigeria’s biggest new deepwater developments, with a projected peak production of about 175,000 barrels of oil per day and 140 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
The NNPC Ltd and the OML 118 Contractor Parties, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited and Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited, executed an Addendum to the OML 118 Production Sharing Contract and an Addendum to the Dispute Settlement Agreement.
The agreements give effect to new fiscal and commercial terms approved by the Federal Government to support the development of the Bonga Southwest/Aparo project. The development is particularly significant for Nigeria, which has struggled in recent years to secure major new investments in its deepwater petroleum sector despite possessing some of Africa’s largest offshore oil and gas resources.
