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NIGERIA
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Alhaji Mele Kyari announced that the corporation has commenced oil exploration exercises in the Bida Basin comprising eight local governments in Niger state.
Alhaji Kyari mentioned that the ongoing exploration can add 40 billion barrels to the nation’s reserves by 2023. The NNPC Group General Manager, Frontier Exploration Services, Abdullahi Bomai revealed that in-depth geological and geochemical studies have shown a strong presence of hydrocarbon-bearing indicators. Oil and gas-bearing formations
are said to have been confirmed in eight local governments in Niger, of which extends to two local governments in Kwara state and Kogi state.
The management of NNPC approved the award of a contract to Integrated Data Services Limited and their alliance partners, China National Petroleum Corporation International Nigeria limited, to embark on immediate seismic data acquisition to further reveal the true extent of hydrocarbons present in the Bida Basin.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engineer Simbi Wabote launched BrentPlus during a webinar organized by the Board. This is a series of initiatives under the Board’s Nigerian Oil and Gas Technology program aimed at stimulating innovations in the oil and gas industry and ancillary sectors to create a platform for local creation of digital technologies. Wabote mentioned that one of the strategic initiatives under the Nigerian content 10-year roadmap is to promote the development of innovative in-country solutions in the oil and gas industry.
He further noted that BrentPlus will include processes of problem definition, call for
innovation, Nigerian Oil and Gas Technology Hackathon, incubation and scale-up. The NCDMB boss solicited for the industry’s collaboration and support in helping to understand the most pressing challenges and provide datasets that can be useful for the innovators. He also called for mentors who will provide help and guidance to teams at the stages of hackathon and incubation and serve as advisors to incubated teams.
SENEGAL/GAMBIA/GUINEA BISSAU
TGS, PGS, and GeoPartners announced the completion of the Jaan 3D seismic survey, covering an area of more than 28,000Km2 over the Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry basin offshore Senegal. The survey was designed to map the Cretaceous Palaeo Shelf-Edge Trend and to shed light on the untapped Jurassic potential, the setting that delivered the deep-water FAN and SNE oil discoveries off Senegal. Jaan 3D comprises more than 12,000Km2 of new data, plus recently reprocessed seismic surveys. According to TGS, the 3D pre-stack time and pre-stack depth migration volumes give a wider picture of the basin and its unique geological features of the shelf edge trend across borders. It is also the setting for various ongoing and anticipated bid rounds, including Senegal’s 2020 License Round, which includes acreage on-trend with FAN and SNE. Offshore the Gambia, Jaan 3D covers an area of prospectivity said to be like the FAR/Petronas targets in adjacent blocks.
GLOBAL
On Thursday 18 June, oil prices rose as the bullish market tried to reignite crude rally by focusing on signs that fuel demand may be improving despite concerns of a second wave of coronavirus infections. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up $38.66 a barrel, while Brent rose to $41.34 a barrel at 17:37 GMT.
Week-to-date, WTI and Brent are up almost 7% each after declines of more than 8% for both in the previous week. The U.S. Energy Information Administration in its Wednesday, 17 June report showed that crude oil inventories rose by 1.2 million barrels for the week ending on 12 June. The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee set up by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, which monitors OPEC’s deal on output restraint, showed that compliance in May was only running at 87% of the agreed quota, resulting in overproduction of 1.3 million barrels a day.
Overproduction has been a problem for the bloc, with Iraq and Nigeria particularly prone to exceeding their quotas. Oil producers who cheated on output cuts renewed their promise to do better providing further support to the market. The committee said Iraq and Kazakhstan have already submitted schedules to compensate for not fully meeting their obligations to reduce output. Other “underperforming participants” will have until 22 June to submit their schedules for compensation.
