Joint venture partners on the Aje shallow-water field, have announced that first oil from the field which was estimated to take place by the end of last month, is now expected by the end of March.

The partners had formerly planned December 2015 for the commencement of production, but the objective was missed.

According to Panoro Energy, final works has been concluded on the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel. The ship is at present en route to Nigeria and will be received by mid-March after a brief stop in Cape Town.

The company added that all important equipment relating to the development of the field had been delivered to Nigeria, and anchor handling operations in the field began in January and is expected to continue until mid-February. It however, did not disclose the reason behind the delay in reaching the January production target.

“We are excited to be approaching first oil at Aje, offshore Nigeria. Significant operational and contractual progress has been made on the final phase of field development. With the drilling phase now concluded, the installation work and the arrival of the FPSO are the main remaining work streams. The field is expected to be producing by the end of March 2016,” John Hamilton Panoro’s CEO told Punch.

The Aje offshore field is situated in the western part of Nigeria in the Dahomey Basin at the border with Benin Republic. It is situated in water depths of 100 metres to 1,000 metres, approximately 24 km from the coast. The field has hydrocarbon resources in sandstone reservoirs in the Turonian gas condensate reservoir, a Cenomanian oil reservoir and an Albian gas condensate reservoir level.

Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company operators the field with 25 % interest alongside Vitol, First Hydrocarbons Nigeria Limited, Energy Equity Resources Limited, Panoro Energy ASA and Jacka Resources Limited.

Anita Fatunji