Italian energy major Eni and the Nigerian government have agreed a pathway to fast-track deepwater development of Oil Prospecting Licence 245 (OPL 245) — one of Nigeria’s most contested oil assets — in a deal that also brings an end to long-running international arbitration proceedings.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi met in Abuja to finalise an agreement under which the existing OPL 245 licence will be converted into two development licences — Petroleum Mining Leases (PML) 102 and 103 — and two exploration licences, Petroleum Prospecting Leases (PPL) 2011 and 2012. These will be granted to Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) as operator, alongside partners Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCO). As part of the deal, international arbitration proceedings at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) will be discontinued.
The agreement centres on Eni’s plans to develop the Zabazaba and Etan deepwater fields, with an extensive programme designed to generate approximately 500 million barrels of reserves. The development plan includes the deployment of a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a capacity of 150,000 barrels of oil per day, while associated gas — projected at 200 million standard cubic feet per day at peak — will be exported through Nigeria LNG.
The PPL 2011 and PPL 2012 exploration licences will be developed in alignment with Zabazaba and Etan to maximise operational and production synergies across all facilities. President Tinubu and Mr Descalzi also discussed Eni’s broader investment portfolio in Nigeria, which includes the Abo and Bonga fields and Nigeria LNG, as well as potential new developments to expand the country’s offshore production capacity. In a related move, Eni recently increased its stake in OML 118 to 15%.
Source: oilreviewafrica.com