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JDZ; Nigeria to share $201m with Sao Tome and Principe By Yakubu Lawal NIGERIA and the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe are to share the sum of $201 million being the signature bonus to be paid for three new oil licenses awarded to local and foreign companies yesterday. The income came from the award of three oil blocks two, three and four, located in the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) of the Gulf of Guinea. Block two was awarded to China`s Sinopec International Petroleum and the ERHC/Addax Petroleum consortium for a signature bonus of $71 million, while Block three was awarded to U.S. oil firm Anadarko (the operator of the block) along with ERHC Energy/Addax Petroleum consortium for a signature bonus of $40 million. Block four went to the Addax/ERHC Energy consortium along with Conoil Producing, Overt Energy, Hercules Energy and Godson Energy, for a signature bonus of $90 million. The companies are to pay the amount within the next 30 days. According to the treaty signed by the two countries, Nigeria will get 60 per cent of the revenue and Sao Tome, 40 per cent. Speaking at the signing of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) agreements with the contractors in the two blocks, Nigeria`s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Daukoru commended the Joint Development Authority (JDA), the body administering hydrocarbon resources in the zone, officials of the two countries and the oil companies for ensuring that the agreements were finally concluded and signed. According to Daukoru, concluding the award of the acreage had not come easily where at a point during the negotiations, U.S. oil firm Noble Energy withdrew its operatorship of block four, leading to ERHC Energy (in which local firm Chrome Energy has a major stake), signing a memorandum of understanding with Swiss firm, Addax Petroleum. "Negotiation of a PSC is by no means an easy task, as it involves exhaustive and careful discussions to arrive at a consensus which all parties will have to abide for a very long time," said Daukoru. The signing of the PSC for the oil blocks had been shifted severally, the last being the botched attempt on February 28, 2006 with officials from Sao Tome demanding postponement for them to be able to further study the agreement. He noted that already, the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) had been directed to fast-track negotiations to ensure the signing of the PSCs for the remaining three blocks awarded along with Block three and four at the 2004 JDZ Licensing Round. Chevron and its partners in block one the minister said were making steady progress in their drilling campaign, which was commenced last January. Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of Addax Petroleum, Mr. Jean Claude Gandur said that his company believed reserves in Block four held much promise, with potentials put at between two and three billion barrels of reserves. "The block we have is one of the most prospective in the region. We promise as operator of Block four to deliver as we have promised," said Gandur. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil yesterday revealed plans to invest on annual basis $2 billion in oil and gas exploration and production in Nigeria towards achieving a production capacity of 1.0 million barrels per day by 2010. This was made known by the Deepwater Operations Manager of Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (a subsidiary of ExxonMobil), Mr. Jide Ayo-Vaughan, in a paper delivered at the ongoing West Africa Offshore (OWA) Conference in Abuja. Vaughan said that the investment was to ensure that ExxonMobil contributed substantially to meeting Nigerian government`s goals of increasing oil production to 4.5 million barrels per day (bpd) and grow reserves to 40 billion barrels by 2010. "Last year we established a vision for our upstream business in Nigeria, to grow and sustain gross operated liquid production to over one million bpd by 2010, and we are well on our way with an exciting year ahead of us," said Vaughan. He listed on projects on the card to achieving this target as including the $2 billion Erha deepwater field development that would produce 150,000 bpd, the Yoho offshore field expansion project and the East Area Additional Oil Recovery project. © 2003 - 2006 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved). |
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| aus der Diskussion: | ERHC, 4 Milliarden Barell Öl, Wahnsinn!!! |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | Zahni1 (17.03.06 13:30:59) |
| Beitrag: | 23 von 51 (ID:20765606) |
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