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•Shell lifts force majeure on LNG supply
By: Chineme Okafor, with agency reports
Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) will be selling its 40 per
cent stake in two Nigerian shallow water oil blocks, a spokesman for the
company said Tuesday.
“Chevron Nigeria Limited is selling its interest in Oil
Mining Leases (OMLs) 83 and 85. Chevron has 40 per cent interest in the two
blocks,” spokesman for CNL, Deji Haastrup, told THISDAY in Abuja without
further details on the planned transaction.
However, Reuters, quoting industry sources, said the two
blocks OML 83 and OML 85 hold an estimated 200 million barrels of oil and an
unknown amount of natural gas but there has been no production yet. Chevron did
not give details of reserves.
“As part of a continuous process of portfolio evaluation and
business prioritisation, Chevron Nigeria Limited ... has put forward its
interests in two oil mining leases for auction,” a company spokesman said.
“The assets are located in the shallow waters.”
The planned sale follows several oil majors’ sale of assets
onshore or in the shallow waters of the Niger Delta over the past few years.
Nigeria suffers from widespread oil theft and sometimes
difficult relationships with local communities onshore; all these drive up the
costs of operation within the Nigerian petroleum sector, while the long-delayed
Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is still stuck in parliament.
Oil industry analysts believe that the slow pace of
deliberation in the passage of the PIB amongst all these other factors, have
added to a growing uncertainty in the country’s oil and gas industry.
Joint owners, Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's Eni and France's
Total, have sold several oil blocks in the oil-bearing region, while eventual
buyers of these included UK-listed firms Heritage Oil and Eland Oil.
Chinese-owned Addax has also said it was interested in
buying more Nigerian oil assets in addition to what it has already.
Chevron's blocks are at the exploratory stage, unlike
Shell's already producing fields, which will make valuations less
straightforward, one banking source said.
Chevron owns a 40 per cent stake in 13 shallow water blocks
with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and also has several
deep offshore assets. Its 2012 net daily
production in Nigeria averaged 238,000 barrels of crude oil and 165 million cubic
feet of natural gas.
It is the third-largest oil producer in Nigeria and one of
its largest investors, spending more than $3 billion annually. It operates
under a joint-venture arrangement with NNPC and has assets on land, swamp and
near-offshore concessions covering approximately 2.2 million acres (8,900 sq.
km) in the Niger Delta region.
U.S. firm ConocoPhillips is also planning to sell its
Nigerian businesses to Oando Energy for about $1.79 billion, the company said
in December, but oil majors, which are looking more towards deep-water
offshore, have said they cannot invest in large new projects in the country
until the oil bill is passed.
Meanwhile, Shell has lifted a force majeure measure on
liquefied natural gas exports from Bonny Island which was in place for almost a
month, according to Upstream Newspapers online.
The force majeure, according to the report, was lifted on
Monday, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) confirmed Tuesday
.
The measure was imposed on Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas
(NLNG) on May 15 after Shell halted its supplies to the Bonny Island facility
over a reported leak.
SPDC said yesterday that the subsequent investigation had
found the leak to have been caused by sabotage.
“Some 240,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day...was
deferred over the shut-in period. SPDC has now repaired the line and resumed
gas production,” it said.
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