By Fred Akanni
It will leave Sahara and Bicta Energy as the only two companies who have not moved to location since the 2003 awards
Guarantee Petroleum has received approval to drill the proposed Ororo-2A well on the Ororo Field from the Department of Petroleum Resources DPR, the Nigerian regulatory agency. Ororo-2A is the first appraisal well in the Ororo Field, located in Chevron operated Oil Mining Lease (OML) 95, in the Northwestern corner shallow water Niger Delta basin. AIM listed Sirius Petroleum is the technical and financing partner.
“Sirius has been working closely with the DPR and its partners, Guarantee Petroleum and Owena Oil & Gas and, whilst no Marginal Field licences have yet been formally renewed, the Directors believe that the Approval from the DPR confirms that the Partners have met the necessary licence obligations on the asset to allow them to commence operations on the field”. Guarantee is one of the 31 Nigerian companies awarded 24 marginal fields by the Nigerian government in 2003.
It was granted the asset along with Owena, a company owned by Ondo State, one of the country’s 36 states. Both Guarantee and Owena have performed poorly. They number, among the remaining three of those marginal field awardees who have not moved a rig to site since they were awarded the assets on the cheap ($150,000 signature bonus) 12 years ago. The remaining two are Sahara Petroleum, holder of the Tsekelewu field and Bicta Energy, holder of Ogedeh field.
The Partnership wrangling has been the key reason why Guarantee/Owena have not done significant work on their asset since the time of award. The Approval for drilling Ororo-2A will expire six months from the date of issue, being 26 October 2015, at which point Guarantee must seek revalidation on behalf of the Partners, if drilling has not commenced.
