In The Spotlight
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Limited) and FIRST Exploration & Petroleum Development Company Limited (FIRST E&P) joint venture have announced a hydrocarbon discovery in the Songhai Field, located in OML 85 in the shallow offshore region of Bayelsa
The well was spudded last November as part of efforts to increase and sustain the JV’s oil production over the next five years. It was successfully drilled to a total depth of 8,883 feet measured depth (MD) in 30 meters of water. The well encountered hydrocarbons across eight reservoirs, logging over 1,000 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sands, most of which exhibit excellent reservoir properties. Preliminary analysis indicated substantial oil and gas volumes, reinforcing the field’s commercial potential. Further evaluations, including formation testing and well data integration, will be conducted to refine resource estimates and optimise field development plans.
Speaking on the discovery, Segun Owolabi, general manager, Exploration and Development at FIRST E&P, said "This discovery marks a major milestone in our efforts to unlock the full potential of our assets. The success at Songhai Field underscores the effectiveness of our exploration strategy and our commitment to delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders."
The discovery is strategically important for the joint venture in supporting Nigeria’s production growth and cost optimisation targets. Seyi Omotowa, chief upstream investment officer of NUIMS, noted that the success at Songhai Field aligns with NNPC Limited’s broader upstream objectives. "This aligns with NNPC Limited’s mandate to drive production growth and cost optimisation. The success at Songhai Field reflects our commitment to strategic partnerships, advanced technology, and efficient operations to maximise Nigeria’s hydrocarbon potential sustainably," he said. The discovery also highlights the role of strategic collaboration in expanding Nigeria’s hydrocarbon reserves.
NNPC Limited’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mallam Mele Kyari, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to efficiency and long-term value creation. "This discovery reaffirms the potential of Nigeria’s offshore assets and the importance of collaboration in boosting reserves and production. NNPC Limited remains committed to driving efficiency and long-term value creation for the nation," Kyari said. Currently, the joint venture maintains a steady daily production of approximately 57,000 barrels of oil per day from its OML 83 and 85 assets. The new discovery in Songhai Field is expected to further enhance production and contribute to Nigeria’s energy security.
Furthermore, the NNPC/FIRST E&P JV remains committed to operational excellence, guided by rigorous safety standards, technical expertise, and efficient project execution. With more than 9 million man-hours of LTI-free operations, the JV continues to lead in safe and responsible hydrocarbon development. This milestone strengthens Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, reinforcing the JV’s role in supporting the Federal Government’s goal of increasing national hydrocarbon production and reserves while ensuring sustainable energy growth.
British independent energy company, Savannah Energy PLC, has completed the acquisition of Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Nigeria Limited (SIPEC), whose principal asset includes 49% non-operated interest in the Stubb Creek oil & gas field
The Stubb Creek field is operated by Savannah-affiliate Universal Energy Resources Limited with a 51% ownership.
The acquisition boosts Savannah's reserves and resources base by approximately 30% from 151mn barrel of oil equivalent to 197mn boe, and adds 227bn standard cubic feet of 2C gross gas resources at Stubb Creek Field. This ensures a long-term feedstock gas back up for commercial purposes.
The Stubb Creek field will be prepared for further production boost to approximately 4.7k bopd from the current 2.7kbopd as Savannah plans an 18-month expansion programme. "We are delighted to announce the completion of the SIPEC Acquisition - the achievement of one of our core business priorities for 2025. Our focus at the Stubb Creek Field will now turn to progressing the expansion project, which we expect to increase production by almost three quarters over the course of 2025/26," said Andrew Knott, Chief Executive Officer of Savannah.
Stubb Creek Field, located in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, is a producing oil field with considerable undeveloped, non-associated 2C gas resources. Commercial oil production started at Stubb Creek Field in 2015, with cumulative production of 8.1 MMstb to 31 December 2024. Oil produced at Stubb Creek Field is processed through production facilities onsite and then exported to the Qua Iboe terminal via a 25 km pipeline. The Stubb Creek Field was converted to a 20-year petroleum mining lease, PML20, in accordance with the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 and effective from 1 December 2023.
Canada’s Africa Oil Corporation has said it hopes to double output and reserves from Nigeria after it takes on full ownership of the privately-owned Netherlands-based company, Prime Oil & Gas, in the coming week
“On closing of that deal we will significantly change the scale of our business, we will double production, we double reserves and significantly boost our liquidity position,” Oliver Quinn, chief commercial officer at Africa Oil told Reuters news agency in an interview.
Assets held by Prime Oil & Gas Coöperatief U.A. — formerly known as Petrobras Oil & Gas — include indirect stakes in deepwater producing Nigerian fields operated by heavyweights Chevron and TotalEnergies.
The non-operating player has a stake in key oil blocks such as PML 2, 3, 4, and PML 52, in the Niger Delta region.
Following the acquisition, Africa Oil expects to produce around 35,000 barrels per day (bpd), Quinn told Reuters.
“They are very significant value barrels because they have very low lifting cost of under US$10, so the margin on the barrels is high and typically sell at premium to Brent.”
As well as boosting its presence in Nigeria, the company has a foothold in Namibia’s dynamic Orange Basin, arguably the hottest exploration property in Africa right now, with a stake in Impact Oil and Gas and exposure to the Venus discovery.
Africa Oil also has exposure to Equatorial Guinea, another major West African oil and gas producer.
On 27 February, Africa Oil’s president and CEO, Roger Tucker, presenting the company’s full-year results for 2024, said it had been a “transformative year” already, and one that will be enhanced again with the acquisition of Prime Oil & Gas.
“This transformational milestone will significantly enhance our scale, financial strength, and ability to deliver meaningful shareholder value,” he said, referring to the acquisition.
"The enlarged Africa Oil will benefit from robust long-term free cash flows and a strong balance sheet with low leverage. We will have direct interests in producing assets in Nigeria, complemented by funded development and exploration projects in the prolific Orange Basin.”
In Namibia, a final investment decision on the Venus discovery by operator TotalEnergies is expected to be taken in 2026, which could further swell Africa Oil’s production numbers.
“Our focus is to add to the cash generation machine, which runs through the decade while on the backend Namibia Venus comes onstream and then we have significant growth in that asset,” Quinn told Reuters.
Read more:
Africa Oil aims for high impact exploration
Orange Basin to be a top drilling zone in 2025 finds Westwood
Set on accelerating the spud date for Prospect I onshore Namibia, ReconAfrica has completed initial surveying activity, and is now conducting debushing
This will soon be followed bydemining before the spudding process can be initiated by the second quarter of 2025.
Prospect I is targeting 365 million barrels of unrisked and 32 million barrels of risked prospective light/medium oil resources, or 1.7 trillion cu/ft of unrisked and 126 bn cu/ft of risked prospective natural gas resources, on a 100% working interest basis, based on the most recent prospective resources report prepared by Netherland, Sewell, & Associates, Inc. (NSAI), an independent qualified reserves evaluator . Prospect I is noted as location 63 in the NSAI report.
"We have made great progress in getting Prospect I ready to drill and , as a result, we are accelerating the spud date into Q2 2025. Our in-country teams have commenced community engagement, surveying, debushing and demining activities, which will be followed by construction of a 10 kilometre road and drill pad site.
"Prospect I is one of the largest mapped structures in the Damara Fold Belt, is well imaged from 2D seismic, and demonstrates a four-way dip closure in which we expect to penetrate over 1,500 metres of Otavi reservoir. Drilling at the Prospect I location has been significantly derisked by the results of our first Damara Fold Belt well, Naingopo, which encountered reservoir in the Otavi carbonates, hydrocarbon shows and oil to surface. We are excited to drill this follow-on exploration well as we continue to look to unlock the significant hydrocarbon potential of the Damara Fold Belt," said Brian Reinsborough , President and CEO.
Norwegian seismic firm TGS has completed reprocessing work on data that it hopes will spur renewed interest in Angola’s forgotten deepwater Block 16
The company has announced that it had finished work on the Block 16 GeoStreamer MC3D seismic dataset in the Lower Congo Basin, in partnership with Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás e Biocombustíveis (ANPG).
Exploration in the deepwater Lower Congo Basin has experienced a resurgence in recent years, TGS reported, with numerous significant discoveries being made and rapidly brought on stream.
"This 3,684-sq-km rejuvenation project utilises modern depth processing workflows to deliver enhanced imaging beyond the original data, enabling detailed evaluation of deeper target plays in both post-salt and pre-salt sections,” it said in a statement.
Angola’s Block 16 has remained largely under explored since the early 2010s, however, with the most recent exploration well drilled in 2013. Until recently, publicly-known oil and gas discoveries within Block 16, in the latest dataset, were limited to the Bengo (1994) and Longa (1995) Upper Miocene finds in the northern section.
However, TGS said that a recent re-evaluation of wells in the Lower Congo Basin has identified oil recovery from Upper Miocene reservoirs in the southern part of the survey area. The survey also provides partial coverage of the field, a marginal field development opportunity currently being marketed by ANPG.
Discovered in 2003, Tchihumba contains hydrocarbon-bearing zones within Upper Miocene, Lower Miocene and Oligocene sands, with recoverable volumes estimated at approximately 136mn barrels.
Additionally, the Lumpembe-1 oil discovery on Block 15/06, drilled in 2023 and currently undergoing development studies, falls within the survey’s coverage.
“TGS is very pleased to continue our support of exploration in this region with our high-quality seismic data,” said David Hajovsky, executive vice president multi-client, TGS. “These accumulations, along with the proximity of significant neighbouring discoveries, present strong opportunities for future exploration success.”
Other West African projects TGS has completed recently include an enhancement of its Fusion 3D seismic dataset offshore Sierra Leone, focusing on the Vega prospect.
Recent discoveries in South America have intensified interest in this region, TGS stated late last year, positioning Sierra Leone as a promising new exploration frontier.
“With growing interest from international oil companies and independents, the Fusion 3D data comes at a crucial time.”
TGS also signed an agreement last year to enhance datasets in Mauritania with the Ministère du Pétrole, des Mines et de l’Énergie, strengthening its position as the sole provider of multi-client subsurface data in the country.
Read more offshore Angola news here:
Red Sky Energy signs risk service contract on Angola Block 6-24
Cabgoc's Sanha project achieves first gas offshore Angola
Sequa Petroleum to acquire interests in multiple blocks in Angola
Energy services engineering and technology company, Enteq Technologies, has launched Saber Vertical, an advanced drilling solution designed to enhance efficiency and reduce operational complexity for vertical and top-hole drilling
Saber Vertical extends the existing advantages of Enteq’s directional drilling rotary steerable system (RSS), the Saber Tool, to vertical drilling, offering a low-service requirement and modular design that minimises both equipment needs and overall costs.
In regions such as the Middle East and Africa, vertical wells are often drilled in remote and demanding environments, making traditional methods expensive and logistically complex. Engineered in response to market demand and industry challenges, this innovative solution provides operators with greater accuracy, control and wellbore stability, helping to deliver a lower total cost of ownership than other systems available today.
The modular design enables adaptability to multiple hole sizes, reducing equipment requirements and enhancing operational flexibility. Its optimised wellbore stability improves drilling accuracy and control, ensuring greater precision throughout the process. The solution is also low-risk and can be deployed globally in a variety of environments, making it a practical and scalable option for operators worldwide.
Andrew Law, CEO at Enteq, said, "Saber Vertical is the result of listening to our customers and understanding the unique challenges of the market. It is inevitable that incumbent solutions for these applications are expensive due to the required large tool size, limiting commercially suitable options available to the market. With its compact design and cost-effective nature, Saber Vertical delivers a much-needed alternative, helping operators improve efficiency without compromising on performance."
A potential gas leak has been revealed from a well at the flagship Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) project, located offshore Mauritania and Senegal
Operator BP said that it had detected subsea gas ‘bubbles’ at one of its wells, A02, during a planned commissioning test at the project site, which straddles the border between the two West African countries.
The company has put in place a plan to rectify any issues but added that the incident would not disrupt output or create any significant environmental impact.
“We have a plan to stop the bubbles,” the company told Reuters in an email statement.
“As part of that plan we have mobilised specialised equipment and personnel to support the rectification efforts.”
BP is developing the mega project alongside US-listed partner Kosmos Energy and two minority stakeholders, Petrosen and SMH.
Mauritania's oil ministry adviser, Ahmed Vall Ould Mohameden, was also cited by the news agency as saying that similar incidents can often occur at the start of production.
"Last week a plane carrying equipment to plug the leak was sent to the site to repair it."
The GTA project produced its first gas at the start of 2025 and is set to become a major gas exporter in the years ahead, producing 2.3 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year during a first phase.
According to BP, it represents one of the deepest and most complex gas development projects yet in Africa, with gas resources located in water depths of up to 2,850 metres.
Gas from GTA Phase 1 is sent to the GTA floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) approximately 40 km offshore, where water, condensate and impurities are removed.
From there, the gas is transferred via pipeline to a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel 10 km offshore, to be cryogenically cooled, liquefied and stored before being transferred to LNG carriers for export.
Some of the gas is also being allocated to help meet growing energy demand in the two host countries.
Read more:
African LNG projects set to benefit with natural gas seen as a bridge fuel in the energy transition
FLNG Gimi receives feed gas from GTA project offshore Mauritania and Senegal
BP's Greater Tortue Ahmeyim offshore Mauritania and Senegal sees first gas
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd has restreamed the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), commencing crude oil processing from the plant for the delivery of petroleum products into the market
The NNPC group chief executive officer, Mele Kyari, announced the development, expressing his gratitude to all stakeholders involved, and marked the occasion as an era of energy independence and economic growth for the country.
Products delivered included premium motor spirit (PMS), automotive gas oil (AGO) and household kerosene (HHK), among others.
The PHRC rehabilitation project, is an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) project that is aimed at restoring the refinery to full functionality and renewal.
The East Africa Energy Cooperation Summit (EA-ECS), taking place 29-30 January in Arusha, Tanzania, will be uniting the region's energy independent poiwer producers (IPPs) and engineering, procurement, construction and financing contract (EPCF) stakeholders to discuss the region's investment potential and innovations taking place in the industry
The event will delve into the success stories, including the Ethiopia-Kenya electricity highway, highlighting the role of cross-border collaboration for economic and social development.
Led by Ministers from across the EAC and large-scale energy users, over two days, the Arusha Summit will deep dive into opportunities for the private sector, advocating for a diversified energy mix to maintain grid stability to support major industrial growth, as well as C&I generation.
“Energy is a pillar for development and growth and is crucial for the functioning of the economies of the EAC Partner States. The East Africa Energy Cooperation Summit will serve as the ideal platform for advancing projects and bringing tangible changes in the industry,” said Andrea Malueth, deputy secretary general (Infrastructure, Productive, Social & Political Sectors), East African Community Secretariat.
“Ten years from now, the EAC’s middle classes will have more job stability, more opportunities, and more disposable income than ever before. New railways, industries, ports, and tourism will position the region as the number one investment destination globally, taking the title back from both parts of Asia and Latin America,” said Elisa Palmioli, producer, EnergyNet, which is organising the event.