Lekoil Eyes 10,000bpd in Otakikpo Oil Field
United Kingdom-listed Lekoil targets to ramp up to production of 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (bopd) in Otakikpo oil field by end of second quarter of 2017, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Lekan Akinyanmi has said.
The oil and gas exploration and development company, which is focused on West Africa, had announced commencement of continuous production from the Otakikpo Marginal Field in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 11.
This follows the completion of a six-kilometer offshore pipeline leading from the storage tanks to the tanker offloading manifold at the Otakikpo field.
The company also stated that all onshore facilities and the offshore pipeline have been fully commissioned and signed off by the regulators.
Otakikpo field is in the southern part of Oil Mining License 11 about 35 kilometres east of the Bonny export terminal.
The field is jointly developed by Green Energy International Ltd as the Operator and Lekoil as technical and financial partner.
“Lekoil is now a producing company. I would again like to thank the entire team that has worked so hard on this project, our partner Green Energy, our investors and debt financiers, our host communities and our government regulators for their continuing support. The Otakikpo project began in a swamp location with no infrastructure and our team delivered production in under two years with, importantly, nearly 915,000 hours without any lost time injuries. I am extremely proud of our people’s achievements,” Akinyanmi explained.
Akinyanmi further stated that initial production (from the four production strings across both wells Otakikpo-002 and -003) is in line with company expectations.
According to him, “Initial production rates are 5,000 bopd, per current regulatory approvals for production commencement”.
“As is customary for a new field, the Company will now focus on gathering production data and optimizing well performance. With regular exports underway, the Company is focused on ramping up to production of 10,000 bopd by end of Q2 2017,” he added.
Following the successful completion of maximum efficiency rate (MER) test on the production wells of the field in OML 11, approximately 60 kilometres south east of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the operator of the field, Green Energy International Ltd (GEIL) had announced that it would commence continuous full production and evacuation from the field soon.
Supervised by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), GEIL said the Otakikpo field had been given a technical allowable production rate of 8,350 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from the four strings in two wells- Otakikpo 2 and 3, for the first quarter of this year.