Seplat discovers 19 million barrels of oil, 157 bcf of gas in Imo State

Seplat Energy has made a new oil find in commercial quantities through its Aku-01 exploration in onshore Imo State under Oil Mining Lease (OML) 53.

The accidental discovery was not part of its original exploration programme, Seplat said in its latest unaudited earnings report on Thursday, adding that its preliminary estimates put the gas deposit at 157 bcf and the oil resource at 19 mmbbls.

“The well is currently being completed as a potential future production well, that will be tied-back to existing infrastructure, supporting early monetization of the hydrocarbon resources,” Seplat stated.

“The discovery also de-risks four adjacent prospects,” it noted, adding that it expects to test one of the four prospects during the next exploration stage

Encouraged by this initial success, now looks to commence the second phase of exploration in the oilfield as early as next year, with five reservoir intervals already uncovered during the discovery.

Seplat holds a 40 per cent participating interest in OML 53, a stake it acquired from Chevron in 2015. NNPC Limited, its joint venture partner, owns the remaining shares.

The discovery comes as Nigeria plans to scale up oil production to 3 million barrels per day by 2030 from current production level of 1.72 million (including condensates) as the government steps up efforts to attract more foreign capital to the energy sector.

Africa’s largest crude producer has been pursuing a series of reforms, including deep offshore tax incentives, more transparent block licencing rounds and implementation of drill-or-drop policy, among others to achieve its oil output expansion.

According to the chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, the upstream regulator has granted approval to field development plans worth over $57 billion in the past two years to enable such projects to advance to final investment decisions.

In the first nine months of the year, Seplat reported a 12.5 per cent jump in revenue to N3.8 trillion, compared to a year earlier, driven by improved crude oil sales.

Profit before tax climbed by more than half to N1.3 trillion, while post-tax profit rose to N355.6 billion from N146.6 billion.

However, total assets declined by 6.3 per cent to N8.2 trillion from N8.7 trillion as of the end of last year.