Africa Oil secures 20-year renewal for Nigeria's Agbami oil field

Africa Oil Corp., a Canadian oil and gas company, has secured a significant boost to its long-term operations in Nigeria with the renewal of its Petroleum Mining Lease 52 (PML 52) for an additional 20 years.

This renewal, granted by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), ensures the continued production of the Agbami oil field, one of Nigeria’s largest deepwater discoveries.

The Agbami field, located approximately 113 kilometres off the coast of the central Niger Delta, is a prolific producer of high-quality, light crude oil. Its development involves subsea wells tied back to a Floating Production Storage and Offtake (FPSO) vessel.

Roger Tucker, CEO of Africa Oil, expressed his satisfaction with the renewal, stating, “The renewal of PML 52, following last year’s renewals for Prime’s Akpo, Egina, and Preowei fields, solidifies our long-term production outlook from these high-quality assets”.

“With respective 20-year renewals for each of these fields, our long-term production outlook from these high-quality assets is secure. We thank NUPRC for its efficient processing of the application and issuing the renewal,” Tucker said.

PML 52 covers 62.46 percent of the producing Agbami field discovered by the Agbami-1 well in 1998.

The oil is light with a gravity of 45° to 47° API. The field is developed via sub-sea wells tied back to a dedicated Floating Production Storage and Offtake (FPSO) vessel through steel catenary risers.

Production commenced in June 2008 and peak gross field production of 250,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) was attained in 2009.

At December 31, 2023, 30 producers, 5 gas injectors and 10 water injectors had been drilled. The field average oil production rate in 2023 was about 98,000 bopd. Cumulative oil production to December 31, 2023, was 1,089 million barrels for the field.

The largest interest in the PML 52 production sharing agreement of 60 percent is held by Famfa Oil, followed by Chevron’s 32 percent operating interest and Prime Oil & Gas Coöperatief’s 8 percent. Following the completion of the amalgamation transaction, the Canadian player’s 50 percent interest in Prime, and thus its stake in the PML, is set to increase to 100 percent.

The completion of the amalgamation is subject to several customary closing conditions, including competition clearance from the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), approval from Nasdaq Stockholm, completion of the previously announced farm-down of Africa Oil’s Namibian interests that are held via Impact Oil & Gas Limited, and a reorganization of the holding structure of BTG Pactual Holding to implement the amalgamation.