After 14 years on the drawing board, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its Joint Venture (JV) partners have executed the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the development of the 4.3trillion cubic feet Assa North/Ohaji South Fields (ANOH) in OML 21.
The partners which signed the agreement in Abuja are Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total Exploration and Production Nigeria (TEPNG) and Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC).
First gas from the project is expected between the last quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, the NNPC said.
According to the Corporation, the project is a major step towards attaining sufficiency in domestic gas supply in Nigeria as it is expected to add about 600million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) to the national gas grid when fully developed.
It has the capacity to expand to 1.2billion cubic feet per day, while another 197 million stock barrel (mmstb) of condensate will also be realized, the NNPC said.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, described the ANOH project as a critical gas supply hub in Nigeria’s burgeoning gas-infrastructure network designed to provide the linkage between the Eastern, Western and Northern gas pipeline system.
Dr. Baru who was represented at the event by NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Mallam Bello Rabiu, said the successful completion of the multi-faceted project which is an integral part of the 7-Critical Gas Development Projects, would be dependent on a number of critical success factors and enablers such as synergy and team work between NNPC and all the key stakeholders.
Baru thanked stakeholders for signing the FID on the ANOH Project after being on the drawing board for 14 years.
He added that the corporation would continue to leverage on available expertise and capital from its global outreach to accelerate and deliver on first gas from the project between the last quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020.
e360 learnt that two world-class project management consultants (DeltaAfrik/Worley Parson & Crestech/Penspen) have been engaged to work with NNPC JV Partners and other stakeholders to achieve set project deliverables.
Mr. Osagie Okunbor, Managing Director SPDC and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, operators of the ANOH project, said Shell was committed to the successful implementation of the project.
Osagie said the ANOH project would offer immeasurable opportunities for Nigerian firms to benefit from engineering, procurement and construction contracts.
He also announced the inauguration of boards to administer the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) for the two clusters of the project to the tune of N1billion for development projects within the host communities for the next five years.