Chevron to sell its stakes in OMLs 83 and 85 offshore Nigeria

Both the OMLs are situated in shallow water in the state of Bayelsa in the Niger Delta and have reserves of 250mn barrels of oil and 14.1bn cubic metres of gas, a company statement said.

Chevron acquired OML 83’s Anyala field and OML 85’s Madu field after its acquisition of Texaco.

The company holds a 40 per cent interest in each of the two OMLs under a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Madu and Anyala fields were originally discovered in 1993 by Texaco, but development was deferred in the 1990s because of cost calculations. Chevron began a new development plan in 2004 due to the strengthening of oil prices, but in spite of the flurry of activity, neither field has been fully developed nor is in production.

In 2012, Chevron’s net daily production in Nigeria averaged 238,000 barrels of crude oil, 4.6mn cubic metres of natural gas and 4,000 barrels of LPG. The company is also the operator of the Agbami deep offshore block.

The sale follows the divestment by international oil companies trio — Shell, Total and ENI — of their joint venture onshore interests in the country.