In its annual filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), French oil giant, Total announced an immediate plan to launch operational activities around its Ikike field, offshore Nigeria, by the end of 2021.
The French company took a Final Investment Decision (FID) on Nigeria’s Ikike project in January 2019, however, “It expects to reach first oil late this year,” Total said in its 2021 filling.
Total is expected to invest $500million in the project, which is forecasted to produce 60,000 barrels of oil per day when fully operational.
Ikike oil field is located at a water depth of 20m in the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 99, approximately 20km offshore Nigeria. The oil field is estimated to hold 70 million barrels of oil equivalent.
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The OML 99 is owned by a joint venture (JV) comprising Total E&P Nigeria (40percent, operator) and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC, 60percent).
“The company had hoped to begin production at the project in 2020. The field will be tied back to the existing Amenam field,” Total said.
The engineering studies for the development of the Ikike field were completed in 2018. The field will be developed as a satellite tie-back to the Amenam-Kpono field, which is also owned and operated by the Total/NNPC JV.
The Ikike field infrastructure includes a new production platform named IKD-1, which will be installed 15km north of the Amenam-Kpono complex. A total of five wells will be drilled at the field and a six-slot wellhead platform will be installed as part of the field infrastructure.
“The company is also considering work on the Owowo discovery, which it found in 2012,”
Total has been operating in Nigeria for more than 50 years in upstream and downstream sectors. The company operates five offshore production licenses, including OML 130, OML 102, OML 100, OML 102, and one onshore license OML 58. The licenses hold various fields including the Akpo, Egina, Ikike, Ofon 2, and Preowei.
Total is also focussing on the liquefied natural gas developments in the country and has acquired a 15percent stake in Nigeria LNG, which operates six LNG liquefaction trains on Bonny Island.
With a maximum crude oil production capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day, Nigeria ranks as Africa’s largest producer of oil and the sixth-largest oil-producing country in the world.
According to information sourced from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigeria has a total of 159 oil fields and 1481 wells in operation with the most productive located in the coastal Niger Delta Basin in the Niger Delta or “South-south” region which encompasses 78 of the 159 oil fields.
