FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development (FIRST E&P) and its partner Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have started oil production from the Anyala West field, offshore Nigeria.
The oil field is contained in the oil mining lease (OML) 83 in the shallow waters of the Niger Delta, off the coast of Bayelsa State in the southernmost part of the African country.
FIRST E&P managing director Ademola Adeyemi-Bero said: “This First Oil production will support the continuous drive of FIRST E&P to be a leading Nigerian independent integrated execution vehicle in the upstream oil and gas sector, as well as demonstrate our commitment to continue to create sustainable value to drive economic growth and development of Nigeria.”
Anyala West is one of the three main hydrocarbon compartments of the Anyala field with the other two being Anyala-Central and Anyala-East.
Anyala field is being developed by the partners along with the Madu field located nearly 20km away from it in OML 85.
The two fields are being developed under the Anyala-Madu project. The fields are being developed with an unmanned conductor supported platform (CSP).
The objective of the offshore Nigerian project is to develop 142 million barrels of oil and 98 billion standard cubic feet of gas from the fields in phase 1.
The production will be processed through the Abigail-Joseph Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO).
Abigail-Joseph is a 274m long converted Suezmax trading tanker with a storage capacity of 700,000 barrel. It has a processing capacity of 60,000 barrels of oil per day, 25,000 stock tank barrel of water per day, and 39 million standard cubic feet per day of gas.
Phase 1 of the Anyala-Madu project is planned to see the drilling of seven development wells in the Anyala West field.
The project’s peak production is estimated to be around 60,000 barrels of oil per day while unlocking more than 300 million barrels of crude oil recoverable reserves.
FIRST E&P is the operator of OMLs 83 and 85 with a 40% stake, while the remaining 60% stake held by NNPC.
