By Adedapo Adesanya
Chevron has reportedly divested its last stake in old oil assets located in Nigeria’s shallow waters; Oil Mining Licenses (OMLs) 86 and 88.
The American oil major was said to have finally sold its 40 per cent stake to Conoil Producing Limited.
In April, it had been reported that the sale of 40 per cent equity held by Chevron on both leases was in top gear and companies were lining up and were expected to disclose their financial and operating capacities.
The oil giant had acquired the OMLs alongside two others, OMLs 83 and 85 from Texaco in 1999 after a merger of both oil firms. Chevron’s largest producing asset in Nigeria, the Agbami field, was also inherited in that same transaction with Texaco.
The deepwater field alone produces 165,000 barrels of oil per day, more than a third of Chevron’s total operated crude oil production in Nigeria.
However, between 2013 and 2015, after a successful sale of OMLs 83 and 85, Chevron failed to secure a buyer for OMLs 86 and 88.
OML 86 contains the Apoi fields, the largest being North Apoi, and holds fields like Funiwa, Sengana and Okubie.
On the other hand, OML 88 contains Pennington, Middleton, and as well as the undeveloped condensate discovery, Chioma fields.
Chevron then re-launched sale of the 6,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day OMLs 86 and 88 last year as it seeks to focus on booming shale production in the U.S.
The fields also have untapped potentials of 55 million oil barrels and 2.8 trillion cubic feet of undeveloped gas reserves.
Chevron is not the only international oil giant selling their assets. Exxon Mobil late last year announced plans to sell up to $25 billion of oil and gas fields in Europe, Asia and Africa in its biggest asset sales for decades, seeking to free up cash to focus on a handful of mega-projects.
Royal Dutch Shell also sold off some of their onshore and shallow-water oil assets to local companies in Nigeria due to oil theft.
Dipo Olowookere