LAGOS�Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria Ltd. has awarded a $120 million well testing and completion services contract related to development of EA oil field off Nigeria to Nigerian service company Ciscon. The field, located 90 km south of Warri in shallow water, is expected to cost $1 billion to develop.
The EA field has estimated reserves of 350 million bbl of oil. When fully developed, it will produce 170,000 b/d of oil and supply about 1 bcfd of gas.
Ciscon will provide services and equipment for the 54 EA wells, the first of which is set to spud in April next year.
The contract shows SPDC is willing to allow Nigerian companies to play leading roles in the country's oil and gas industry, said Deputy Managing Director of SPDC Egbert Immoh.
The project team is finalizing three other major EA drilling-related contracts, which include the provision of two jack ups, drilling fluids, and pumping services, as well as directional and multilateral drilling and evaluation services.
Shell has already awarded Samsung Corp. a contract to build a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel, and it has awarded Halliburton Co. the contract for the FPSO's mooring and topsides. Halliburton will operate the FPSO for 2 years and train Shell staff to take over.
Stolt Offshore has signed a contract to lay pipelines from EA field to the FPSO. Stolt will do this in association with a Nigerian company, Globestar Engineering. Some of the fabrication work is earmarked for a yard in Warri.
The field is being financed with the first alternative funding arrangement in the country�s oil and gas industry, under which the joint-venture partners (Shell and a unit of Agip SPA) will bear up front all the cost of developing the oil field and later recoup the money from revenues.
