The Ogbele Gas project in eastern Nigeria is a winner of the 2015 Global Gas Flare Reduction Excellence (GGFRE) award. Sponsored by the World Bank, the award is the result of competition amongst many projects from all over the world. It will be conferred on the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR), operator of the gas project, at the 4th Global Forum holding in Khantv-Mansivsk, in Russia, from September 9 -10 2015.
NDPR, a Nigerian independent, was notified of the honour by Bjorn Hamso, Programme Manager of the GGFR Partnership at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, via an emailed letter last week. “If you feel it would be appropriate to share this recognition with partner companies and government agencies that were instrumental in making the project a success”, Mr. Hamso wrote, “please provide the organisations’ names well in advance so they can be included”.
Layi Fatona, Managing Director of NDPR, said the content of the email took him by surprise. “We were only notified two months ago to send details of the project”, he explained in a phone conversation over the weekend.
The Ogbele Gas Development Project is located on the Ogbele Marginal Field, which NDPR has operated for upwards of 15 years. It comprises the building and commissioning of the 100 million standard cubic feet per day (100MMscf/d) capacity Ogbele Gas Processing Plant with a 20 kilometre long gas delivery pipeline, linking the plant to the Bonny NLNG Rumuiji Manifold station.
“The project has allowed the company to fully commercialize and monetize the entire Associated and Non Associated (AG and NAG) gas resources in the Ogbele Marginal Field, which as of date, and since commencement of operations in late November 2012, had delivered over 25 Billion Standard cubic feet of gas into the Bonny NLNG.
The World Bank website says that The Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) Excellence Award “recognizes governments, oil companies, development institutions, and other organizations that have made a significant contribution to gas flaring reduction in the upstream sector of the industry through associated gas utilization projects, partnerships, and innovative use of technology or business approaches”.
The Bank expects more than 200 attendees at the Global Forum, including the Russian Federation Minister of Energy Alexander Novak and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergey Donskoy as well as seniorb governemt officials, oil company representatives, technology providers, consultants development institutions and others.
Fatona allows that the Ogbele gas project “presents a classic gas utilization collaboration opportunity (midwifed by the Department of Petroleum Resources DPR) between an independent Nigerian Marginal field operator (NDPR) and the NNPC/Shell/TOTAL/ENI JV. In total, the project has allowed the attainment of gas flare out in Ogbele Marginal Field”.
