Eland Oil & Gas PLC has announced the acquisition of a 40 per cent stake in the Ubima oilfield in Nigeria
Ubima lies onshore in the northern part of Rivers State — one of Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger-Delta region. It was carved out of oil mining lease (OML) 17 held by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited.
The field currently needs a US$125mn investment and can be in production nine to 12 months after the beginning of its programme, the company said in a statement.
Leslie Blair, CEO of Eland Oil & Gas PLC, said, “We will be able to lead the development and move quickly to bring these assets into early production generating strong cashflow.”
Bloomberg reported that the Scotland-based explorer has its focus on West Africa, primarily Nigeria. The company expects to produce 7,000 bpd from its OML 40 License in the Niger Delta by the end of the year.
The OML 40 also includes five undeveloped fields — Abiala, Adagbassa Creek, Gbetiokun, Polobo and Ugbo.
According to analysts, the most recent independent 2C resources estimate for the Ubima field is 34mn barrels of oil reserves. There is also a significant upside 3C resource estimate of 66.9mn barrels of oil, with an extra 2C resource estimate of 2.7bn cu/m of non-associated gas in two reservoirs.
