Oando and Shelf Drilling Have the Drilling Contract
The widely publicized $1.2Billion Loan borrowed for infill drilling by Chevron on behalf of the NNPC/Chevron joint venture, is indicative of a series of loans being processed by the major upstream Joint Ventures in the Nigeria’s oil industry. NNPC’s JV with Shell, TOTAL and Agip and its JVs with TOTAL and Agip separately, are working on similar transaction.
Going to the banks to borrow money for projects is not uncommon for NNPC Joint Ventures; what’s different with Chevron is that this is not for a specific project, but for conventional work programme. With the money, loaned from Standard Chartered Bank and United Bank For Africa (UBA), Chevron will be drilling 23 onshore and 13 offshore wells in two stages over the next three years. The onshore well drilling contract has been awarded to Oando Energy Services, which will utilize the rig Oando Respect.
The offshore drilling will be handled by Shelf Drilling, which will deploy Trident VIII. The first stage of the work programme, comprising of 19 wells, is projected to deliver 21,000 barrels of crude oil and condensate per day alongside 120 million standard cubic feet of gas each day in 2015 and 2016. And the second stage, comprising of 17 wells, is projected to yield 20,000 barrels of crude oil and condensate per day alongside gas production of 7 million standard cubic feet of gas each day between 2016 and 2018.
