The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) has announced the successful commencement of oil production from the Akpo West Field, located approximately 175 kilometres from Port Harcourt.
The NNPC Ltd. said the production was in line with President Bola Tinubu’s directive that it should optimise production from the nation’s oil and gas assets.
The NNPC Ltd.’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, in a statement on Wednesday said the milestone was the result of meticulous planning, strategic collaboration and unwavering dedication from stakeholders involved in the project.
He said it would add 14,000 barrels per day condensate to the nation’s production.
“This will be followed up by the production of about four million cubic meters of gas per day by 2028.
“The development of Akpo West which is on Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) 2, (formerly OML 130), leverages the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility via a sub-sea tie-back to keep costs low and minimise greenhouse gas emissions,
The milestone was enabled by the strategic leadership of the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mele Kyari and its Upstream Directorate whose support played role in propelling the operators to actualise short and mid-term hydrocarbon production goal of the current administration,” the statement quoted Soneye as saying.
Akpo West is located 135 kilometres offshore and it is one of the discoveries on PML 2 with proximity to the Akpo main which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023.
PML 2 is operated by TotalEnergies with a 24 per cent interest, in partnership with CNOOC (45 per cent), Sapetro (15 per cent), Prime 130 (16 per cent) and the NNPC Ltd., as the concessionaire of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC). (NAN)