Chevron and Total Exploration and Production are favoured to buy the deepwater assets being put up for sale by Brazil owned Petrobras Oil & Gas B.V. (POGBV) in Nigeria.
The two companies have the right of first refusal when they are officially notified by Petrobras of its plan to sell its stakes in the highly prolific Agbami, Akpo, and Egina, operating under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) which are officially operated by these two companies.
Industry sources have told BusinessDay that the assets are good and the companies may actually be looking forward to purchasing them if the prices are good. The sources said that it is only if the two companies are not comfortable with the price, then a third party may come in.
Eddy Wikinna, managing director of Treasure Energy Resources, and former external affairs manager for Shell Nigeria Exploration Company (SNEPCO) explained that the two companies have the financial muscle and technical capacity to purchase the assets.
On whether he envisaged the possibility of some Nigerian companies picking up the assets, he said, the banks are no longer interested in lending money to Nigerian exploration and Production (E&P) oil firms because of the risk involved.
“Even if there are Nigerian independent operators that are interested they might not be able to raise the money to buy the assets,” Wikinna said.
Toyin Akinosho, publisher of Africa Oil and Gas report told BusinessDay that the assets are good and that since the companies have the right of first refusal they are likely to take advantage of their position to exercise their right to buy the asset.
“At any rate they know the potential of these assets because they operate them.”
Petrobras earlier this month said that it was at the teaser stage of divesting 100 percent of its interest in Petrobras Oil & Gas B.V. (POGBV), a joint venture in which it owns (50%), BTG Pactual E&P B.V. (40%), and Helios Investment Partners (10%).
The teaser features the main information on the opportunity, as well as the objective criteria for the selection of potential process participants, it stated.
POGBV holds stakes in two world-class deepwater blocks in Nigeria, the Akpo and Agbami production fields, the Egina field, which is in its development phase and where production is scheduled to begin in late 2018, and the Preowei discovery, which is currently under evaluation.
The giant Akpo and Egina fields are operated by Total, while the Agbami field is operated by Chevron.
Petrobras is preparing to auction its stakes in Nigerian oil fields to raise cash for domestic projects; a deal that may fetch up to $5 billion; sources close to the deal told Reuters news earlier
It will sell its eight per cent stake in the Nigerian offshore Agbami block, and its 20 per cent share of the offshore Akpo project, operated by France’s Total.
Crude oil production from the Agbami field began in 2008. Output from the project can reach 250,000 barrels per day (bpd), and it holds estimated reserves of 900 million barrels.
Akpo began production in 2009 and has plateau output of 175,000 bpd of light condensate oil and nine million cubic metres of gas. It has proven and probable reserves of 620 million barrels of condensate and more than 28 billion cubic metres of gas, according to Total.
OLUSOLA BELLO
