Crude oil production begins in Lagos

A Nigerian firm, Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Co. Ltd  has said it has started crude oil production from an offshore field in Lagos.

“Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Co. Ltd (YFP) is pleased to announce that it has commenced production of crude oil from its Aje field located in block OML 113 offshore Lagos,” the company said on Tuesday.

The Aje oil field lies 25 km from the coast in western Nigeria, on the border with Benin. It is situated 64 km from Lagos and is 12 kilometres away from the West Africa Gas Pipeline (12 km away).

It is located in the Dahomey Embayment of southwestern Nigeria, which is the eastern end of the Cretaceous Benin Basin of West Africa. Water depth across the field ranges from 99 metres to over 1,500 metres. The field is estimated to be one of the largest oil fields in Nigeria outside the Niger Delta basin.

Production began after more than 25 years of exploratory, appraisal and developmental activities in the field, making Lagos an oil-producing state.

The company  did not state the volume of current output from the field but stated that the company has capacity to produce 40,000 barrels per day.

“Oil produced from the Aje field will be stored on the Front Puffin which has production capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day and storage capacity of 750,000 barrels,” it added in a statement.

Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is concentrated in the Niger Delta but the region has been dogged by unrest and disruption from militants demanding a fairer share of revenue.

“The attainment of this milestone is indeed a laudable achievement not just for the YFP, but for the Nigerian oil and gas industry as a whole and indeed Lagos State, which can now be addressed as an oil-producing state,” said the chairman of YFP, Tunde Folawiyo in a statement.

“We are very proud of and appreciate the efforts, determination and commitment of the entire Aje project team, past and present; the constant support from our regulators, the DPR and Ministry of Petroleum; and our financiers. We believe this crucial support will spur us on to even greater achievements,” Folawiyo added.

YFP was granted an Oil Prospecting License (OPL 309) in June 1991 as a Sole Risk Contract under the Nigerian government’s Indigenous Allocation Programme, which was put in place to encourage the development of a locally owned and operated Nigerian upstream Oil industry. The total area covered by the concession block is 1699 sq km.