Aiteo Eastern E&P Company Limited effectively takes over operatorship of the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29, beginning September 1, 2015. It comes at a time of plunging output of the asset.
OML 29 averaged about 50,000BOPD, (22,500BOPD Net to AITEO) until mid 2015, and has now gone down to 35,000BOPD. The Nigerian independent, which is part of a diversified energy group including crude oil and petroleum product sales, completed acquiring the 45% interest in the acreage in March 2015. That equity belonged to three European companies Shell (30%), TOTAL (10%) and ENI (5%), with the majority stake, 55% held by NNPC, the Nigerian state hydrocarbon company.
AITEO acquired the 97 km crude export pipeline Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), a part of the purchase, which came with a bill of $2.55Billion ($800Million of which was funded by Nigerian lenders). This divestment is part of the strategic review of Shell Nigeria’s onshore portfolio.
