NIGERIA’S daily crude oil production increased by about 2.09 million barrels in 2018, a nine percent increase compared with the 2017 average daily production of 1.86 million barrels.
Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), disclosed that the nation had maintained a line of consistent year-on-year improvement in its daily crude oil production.
Baru stated the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Nigerian Gas Company, Petroleum Products Marketing Company, Duke Oil, NIDAS and Integrated Data Services were among the companies that boosted the corporation’s performance in 2018.
He singled out NPDC, the corporation’s upstream company, as the major contributor to the industry’s success story in 2018, expressing enthusiasm on the 52 percent daily crude oil production growth by the company when compared with its 2017 performance.
Total S.A. reported that it has started production from the Deepwater Egina Field, located about 150 miles offshore Nigeria. According to Total, at plateau Egina will produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), equivalent to approximately 10 percent of Nigeria’s production.
Total also stated that it achieved start-up at nearly 10 percent below the initial budget. It attributes the $1bn-plus in capital expenditure savings primarily to excellent drilling performance that cut drilling time per well by 30 percent.
First discovered in 2003, Egina is the second development in production in the Oil
Mining Lease (OML) 130. Akpo, the first field developed in OML 130, began production in 2009. Total Upstream Nigeria Limited operates OML 130 and owns a 24 percent interest in the block in a partnership with NNPC.
Other stakeholders include South Atlantic Petroleum – SAPETRO (15 percent), CNOOC E&P Nigeria (45 percent) and Petrobras Oil and Gas BV (16 percent)