The country’s dwindling oil production, currently standing around one million barrel per day may receive a boost as Green Energy, operator of Otakikpo Marginal Field in OML 11 move to increase production to 25,000 barrels per day.

Nigeria has been struggling to pump crude oil as vandalism and theft forced operators to shut-in. The development has already pushed the country to seventh on Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) crude oil production list and third in Africa from its fifth and first positions.

Amidst the imbalance in the demand and supply of gas due to the lack of in-country capacity, GEIL disclosed that all is set for the commissioning of a 12MMSCFD modular LPG extraction plant and a 6MW power generating plants.

Chairman of GEIL, Prof. Anthony Adegbuluge, who spoke at the company’s exhibition and end of the year party, said the firm has achieved 100 per cent local content, adding that the operations are fully handled by Nigerians.

In the face of divestment and energy transition, a development leading to dwindling investment for the sector, Adegbulugbe said funding and the climate change would not pose challenges for organisations, which are proactive.

The professor noted that while the sector is currently faced with challenges, organisations like his found leeway, especially in creating strong workforce.

Adegbulugbe said the Otakikpo has been developed into an industry model with the second phase campaign aimed at increasing the field’s production and providing a platform for future development by drilling two additional wells.

According to him, the critical objectives for the campaign were to achieve an incident-free operations, meet geological and production objectives and deliver reliable and fully functional wells.

“Despite that there had not been any drilling activity on the field over the past 36 years, we collaborated with our selected turnkey well delivery service partners (Geoplex and Baker) and established that implementing an integrated turnkey contractual and project management execution strategy could be a game-clincher to mitigating against the well-documented well delivery challenges encountered by small to midsize indigenous operators in the Niger Delta.

“We have also developed very aggressive plans to considerably increase production from the field with the potential to spend up to $750m within three years.

“These consistent spectacular demonstrations of outstanding ability of turning obstacles into opportunities and problems into possibilities is borne out of a deep-rooted corporate character that sees challenges as guidelines and not stop signs,” Adegbulugbe said.

He noted that the firm was first exploration and Production Company to transition to the Petroleum Industry Act by fulfilling all requirements to securing the Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) approval from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).