(Ecofin Agency) - The Federal Government together with Shell and the Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) are expected to sign the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the $13.5 billion ZabaZaba Deepwater project in Q2 of 2017.

This is coming as NAE, at the beginning of this month started receiving bids for the development of the oil field which had been planned a few years ago, but was later postponed after cost estimates made the project impossible.

The request for tenders for the development of the field came after technical evaluations for the main packages of the project were completed by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and NAE. These packages include the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units, subsea installation and rigs.

According to the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Simbi Wabote (photo), the agency had accelerated the evaluations and approvals for the project, with the aim of boosting Nigeria’s crude oil production.

He said the completion of the technical evaluation “had paved the way for Agip to proceed with its plans to receive and evaluate the commercial bids, conclude negotiations and award contracts in the second quarter of 2017.”

Wabote added that NAE plans to finalize the Final Investment Decision (FID) in Q2 of 2017 and begin the project by Q3 in order to achieve first oil by 2020.

Located in OPL 245 in the eastern portion of the Niger Delta region, the Zabazaba Deepwater is a Greenfield offshore licence block in water depths ranging from 1,200 to 2,400 metres. It has proven reserves of 560 million barrels of oil.

Anita Fatunji