Nigerian Sun: The Bonga breakthrough: “History was made in the last few days of last year when Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company announced the first crude oil shipment from the Bonga deepwater oil and gas field offshore Nigeria.”: Thursday 12 January 2006
By Sun News Publishing
Thursday, January 12, 2006
History was made in the last few days of last year when Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company announced the first crude oil shipment from the Bonga deepwater oil and gas field offshore Nigeria.
The development, a landmark shipment, involves the pressurised transfer of crude from the Bonga Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessel via a dynamic flexible pipe of about two and half kilometres to the offshore loading buoy and into an ocean going tanker.
The Bonga concession was awarded in 1993 during the first round of bidding for tier acreage. It is operated on behalf of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under a production sharing contract.
The consignment of crude shipped stands at about 200,000 barrels. The offshore field is believed to be endowed with over a billion barrels reserve.
We commend this breakthrough by Shell. The technological feat which the company has demonstrated is one that suggests that with persistence and focus, an organisation can really achieve its desired objective. For instance, the fabrication and installation of the world's largest deepwater Single Point Mooring Buoy at Nigerdock which brought about the breakthrough is no mean task. This has been acclaimed as the first, largest and most technologically advanced in the world.
As the eighth largest oil producing country in the world and with the largest reserves in Africa, Nigeria's rating in oil production has been substantially improved. With it, Nigeria's crude oil reserves has been boosted.
With it as well, Nigeria can get some concession in a revised OPEC Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) quota. At moment, Nigeria exports two million barrels of crude a day. The addition from Bonga could give Nigeria a boost in the club of oil producing countries of the world. As we applaud he historic development from Bonga, the time has come for Nigeria to have a good record of the quantity of oil it produces in a day.
At moment, it is a matter of guess work. The fluidity of the situation is one of the unfortunate fallouts of the sharp practices that pervade our oil industry. The existence of cartels in the industry is a major threat to its operations.
At our export loading terminals, the lack of capacity of those who operate there is so glaring that cheating and falsification have become the order of the day. The losses that are incurred on daily basis through siphoning are enormous.
The situation has not been helped by the issuance of bunkering licenses.
Vested interests are all over the place and they manipulate the system to suit their purpose. To maximise whatever profit we make from oil production, these loopholes should be blocked. The Bonga breakthrough should serve as a morale booster to the operators in the oil industry.
Click here to return to ShellNews.net HOME PAGE