Egina to boost Nigeria’s oil production by 10%

The $16 billion Egina, FPSO, is expected to boost Nigeria’s oil production by 200,000 barrels of oil per day, raising the country’s present total oil output by approximately 10 per cent.

The Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Managing Director, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, highlighted this yesterday while on a visit to Vanguard Newspaper in Lagos, noting that the Egina, which had a successful away sail, left the quayside at LADOL fabrication yard, on a three-day journey to the Egina Field in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130, located about 150km offshore the Niger Delta.

She observed that the Egina, designed for 25 years of operations is reputed as the deepest offshore development carried out so far in Nigeria, in water depths of over 1,500 meters, adding that upon arrival on the field, the mooring and hook-up operations will commence, connecting the FPSO to the subsea facilities, before the start-up of production planned at the end of the year.

“With the integration of the six locally fabricated modules at the SHI-MCI Yard, Total has changed how deep offshore oil and gas projects are executed in the country and set new records for Nigerian content,” a statement from Total stated.

Being the first project to be launched after the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act in 2010, Egina is also reputed as the highest Nigerian Content ever completed in an oil and gas project.

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman (right), the Minister of Defence, Brigadier General Mansur Dan Ali, (RTD), (middle), the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas during the commissioning of Fast Patrol Craft and Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats at the Naval Dockyard in Victoria Island, Lagos yesterday.

The project was said to have generated significant activities for local contractors, in various sectors and provided avenues for training and development of Nigerians in various domains.

Seven months ago, Egina made history as the first FPSO unit to berth at an integration quay in Africa, for the installation of six topside modules that were fabricated in Nigeria.

NPA MD, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman further confirmed that the breaking of monopoly over handling of oil and gas consignments has enabled oil companies to cut cost of operations in Nigeria.

Usman, who did not provide details stated: “Recently, we got submissions from Shell Petroleum saying the removal of monopoly has translated to a billion dollar savings for them in one of their Oil Mining Leases, OML.

“This is huge and Shell is just one company. Other oil and gas companies have also been able to cut cost.”

“It then led to the success story on Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) which integration has just been completed in Lagos. There was savings because nobody was compelled to use any port”, she explained further.