The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has said that the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) would be extended from Ghana to Cote d’ Ivoire. The Corporation management also said that it has signed two major alternative financing agreements with Chevron and Shell Nigeria, for the development of some key upstream oil assets and projects in Nigeria.
According to a statement by the NNPC, the planned extension of the pipeline was part of the Federal Government’s West African energy integration policy. The statement said that Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power, Mr. Saidu Mohammed, disclosed this this fact while receiving a delegation from Cote d’Ivoire in Abuja.
Baru explained that the extension of WAGP to Cote d’Ivoire would facilitate easy transmission of gas within the West African sub-region. According to him, the visit would afford the NNPC and Cote d’Ivoire the opportunity to open a new vista for further bilateral discussion which would lead to the growth and development of the oil and gas sector.
He said Nigeria and indeed the NNPC has been into the business of oil and gas exploration and production for over fifty years, stressing that the interface would enable the NNPC to share its vast experiences in the sector with the delegation.
“Petroleum exploration and production dates back to over fifty years in Nigeria and a lot of experiences in technology and personnel management have been acquired. We are ready to share our experiences with you so as to help you to avoid the mistakes we made in the past,” he noted. Baru expressed the readiness of the NNPC to develop the capacity of the delegation, adding that the NNPC was aware of the long history of refining in Cote d’ Ivoire.
In his remarks, leader of the Ivoirian delegation and Deputy Director, Production, of Ministry of Petroleum, Cote d’ Ivoire, Mr. Patrick Marshal, said the visit was to learn from Nigeria some of its best practices in personnel management, exploration and production in the oil and gas industry. On the alternative financing deal, the NNPC said the deal with Chevron was for the Sonam project, codenamed Project Falcon, which is expected to develop incremental proven oil reserves of 211 million barrels and proven gas reserves of 1.9 trillion cubic feet within Oil Mining Leases (OML) 90 and 91.
On the other hand, the deal with Shell was on behalf of the NNPC, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Joint Venture.
The deal was for Project Santolina in Nigeria and was for an accelerated upstream production comprising 156 development activities across 12 OMLs and 30 fields in the Niger Delta.
