ESSO Exploration and Production Nigeria says its $1 billion Usan Infill Project in Oil Mining Lease 138 is expected to generate $1.2 billion in revenue.

Jagir Baxi, the managing director of ESSO  Exploration and Production Nigeria, ExxonMobil’s affiliate, announced this on Wednesday in Abuja at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week.

Mr Baxi said the development would unlock an additional 40,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from Nigeria’s deepwater assets, marking ESSO’s return to deepwater drilling after almost a decade.

The project, which has secured funding from partners in OML 138, was also projected to generate about $ 1.2 billion in revenue for Nigeria over the next four years.

Mr Baxi disclosed that more than $300 million had already been committed to the project by the OML 138 partners. He added that the investment was developed within 18 months of the completion of advanced seismic acquisition and processing in 2024.

He described the investment as a major milestone that aligned with the federal government’s ambition to increase crude oil production.

Mr Baxi said the project was designed as a short-cycle investment that would deliver first oil within about six months of offshore execution, with peak production of 40,000 barrels per day expected within 18 months.

“This investment will unlock around 40,000 barrels per day of new deepwater oil production. The project is designed to deliver first-year production within around six months of on-block execution, with peak production within 18 months,” he said.

He further said that the 2022 renewal of the OML 138 lease for another 20 years provided the confidence needed to proceed with the investment. Reflecting on the field’s performance, he said Usan had been producing oil for 14 years, during which partners invested over 16 billion dollars to develop the asset and produced more than 350 million barrels of crude oil.

“In these 14 years, about $4.6 billion has been delivered back to Nigeria. This infill project is expected to generate a further $1.2 billion in revenues to the country within the next four years,” he said.

Mr Baxi said the project would deploy advanced drilling technologies, including the most complex extended-reach well ever drilled at the Usan field, stretching to more than four kilometres to access untapped reserves.

He added that several wells would also utilise intelligent drilling and completion technologies capable of targeting multiple oil-bearing zones from a single well. According to him, the technologies are expected to maximise recovery while reducing development costs.

(NAN)