Nigeria - Lease Round Promotion
| The Geology of Nigeria
The Niger Delta - is located on the West African continental margin where the east trending Equatorial coast turns south towards the Equator. More...
The Inland Basins - The Nigerian inland basins consist of the Anambra basin, the Benue Trough and the Chad Basin; these basins are aligned in a row from south west to north east between the Niger Delta and the Chad border. More... |
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Exploration and Production in Nigeria
The Niger Delta - Hydrocarbon exploration in Nigeria began in 1908, when a German company started exploration in the Araromi area to the east of Lagos nearby oil seepages. More...
The Inland Basins - Pre-1950 - Exploration activity in the Anambra Basin started in the late-1930s by Shell. More...
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Opportunities in Nigeria
On 21 November 2006, local press reported that the bid round planned for November 2006 would not take place before early 2007. This is reportedly due to three reasons. First, the presidency is not happy to see this bid round go ahead before alleged irregularities in the previous round are cleared, like the controversial award of OPL 291 to Starcrest and the subsequent farmout to Addax. Second, time left before year-end is too short to organize investor roadshows in Abuja, London, Houston and Singapore to present the bid round. Third, Ministry of Petroleum Resources officials in Abuja are busy at the moment preparing the next OPEC meeting scheduled in Abuja on 14 December; that makes it difficult to organize a bid round roughly at the same time.
On 22 October 2006, Edmund Daukoru, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Tony Chukwueke, Director General of the Department of Petroleum Resources made statements on separate occasions about the upcoming bid round. The number of blocks on offer has been increased from 50 to about 60 due to strong interest from Asian investors and the bid conference should take place at the end of November. A list of available acreage has not yet been published. It has been confirmed that bids including downstream investments would be favored and that revoked blocks from IOC's would be on offer.
On 25 September 2006, the local press reported some details recently announced by Tony Chukwueke, Director General of the Department of Petroleum resources, about the bid round planned in October. It was not immediately clear from the accounts, how many blocks would be offered, some sources citing 50 blocks overall with 30 in the Niger Delta and 20 in inland basins; other sources citing 65 oil and gas blocks with 50 in deep offshore and 15 in inland basins. In the absence of official information, the menu of the offering is open to interpretation. The offering of some revoked blocks -possibly 8- from IOCs has been confirmed, Mr Chukwueke stating that oil companies failing to operate on an oil block for more than ten years would lose this block automatically. The revoked blocks could be from Chevron, Exxon and Shell whose Ogoniland acreage was specifically but unofficially mentioned. Mr Chukwueke also said that there would be no local content vehicle (LCV) in this round, the LCV policy having missed its objective. The original idea of the LCV was to enable indigenous firms to participate in oil projects; practice has shown however, that often LCVs would only use their share in a project to market it to a foreign partner, thereby not furthering the cause of Nigerian content. President Obasanjo himself ordered the cancellation of the LCVs. In the upcoming round, companies being awarded acreage will have the mandate to appoint a local partner instead of having LCVs attached to them.
Earlier information
On 21 August 2006, Tony Chukwueke, head of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) announced that 50 oil blocks would be offered in the next licensing round to be held in October. Mr Chukwueke, who spoke at an industry conference in Stavanger (Norway), explained that 30 blocks would be in the Niger Delta and 20 in the inland basins. Of the Niger Delta blocks, eight will be in deep waters. Companies will have the opportunity to place bids until October and the winners should be announced in November. The bids will have to include commitments to downstream projects in addition to E&P activities. To ensure that only serious players participate, bidders must pay a deposit worth 25% of the proposed signature bonus when submitting a bid. One aim of this round is to get the Niger Delta states to participate and secure some acreage to get the local communities more involved in the E&P business; this move is planned by the federal government to counter criticism about the insufficient benefits local communities enjoy from the oil wealth. In late September, the DPR will hold investor meetings in Abuja and London to present details of the planned licensing round.
Blocks Available
In the absence of official information about the offered acreage, below is an unofficial list of blocks that may be offered at the bid round scheduled for early 2007. It has been compiled from various industry sources, is indicative only and is by no means authoritative.
Niger Delta Basin
Open blocks
on shore: OPL 231, OPL 234, OPL 235, OPL 274, OPL 280
shelf: OPL 240, OPL 241, OPL 263, OPL 288, OPL 290, OPL 454, OPL 467
deep water: OPL 250, OPL 251, OPL 258, OPL 293, OPL 295
Already awarded blocks, do require partial relinquishment/expropriation.
on shore: six blocks belonging to three IOC’s and one local company.
shelf: 21 blocks belonging to five IOC’s and 10 local companies.
deep water: three blocks belonging to one IOC and two local companies.
Possibly open blocks, would require partial relinquishment/expropriation
onshore: OPL 228, OPL 275
shelf: OPL 287
deep water: OPL 325
Anambra Basin
Open blocks: OPL 901, OPL 903, OPL 914
Benue Trough
Open blocks: OPL 811, OPL 813, OPL 814, OPL 815, OPL 816, OPL 819, OPL 823, OPL 841
Chad Basin-Bornu Trough
Possibly open blocks, would require partial relinquishment/expropriation: OPL 732
PEPS Rating and Ranking
Data and Reports Available from IHS
IHS Studies
- African Exploration Opportunities Niger Delta Basin, 1992: A review of petroleum geology, licensing, exploration and production in the Nigeria, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea sectors of the delta, including an analysis of deep water potential.
- Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry, 1996
An extensive review of previous and current upstream activity, geology, and exploration opportunities. Basin tectonics, stratigraphy and hydrocarbon geology, exploration and development history and infrastructure are all considered.
- FOCUS on Nigeria: Deepwater Potential, 2002
The report provides a concise history of activities during the last decade , insights to the regional geology and the contributing factors to the high success rate, leading to an analysis of the potential of the deep and ultra deep Nigerian waters.
Basin Monitors
- Niger Delta
- Anambra Basin
- Chad Basin
Maps
GEPS Reports: The flagship IHS E&P reporting package, GEPS is established as the market leader in the provision of definitive, up-to-date, accurate and detailed information
PEPS Reports: PEPS is a powerful, searchable online service providing constantly updated upstream economic, fiscal and commercial data and analysis.
Introducing the Nigeria Regional Manager: Eric Schmid
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Eric Schmid is an editor within the Sub Saharan Africa team for IHS in Switzerland. In that role, Schmid works with a team of E&P professionals who are dedicated to the acquisition and compilation of data covering all aspects of the upstream industry in Sub Saharan Africa. The data collected is reported in daily, weekly, monthly and annual reports, as well as cartographically displayed within a global E&P database.
Schmid joined IHS in 2000 and has 19 years of resource industry experience. Prior to joining IHS Schmid worked as exploration geologist for Randgold Resources, managing mineral exploration projects in West Africa.
Schmid obtained a masters degree in Geology from the University of Geneva.
Based in our Geneva, Switzerland office Eric can be contacted at: eric.schmid@ihs.com
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