Three months after a major turnaround maintenance (TAM) of the facility was finished ahead of schedule, Nigeria’s first deep-water exploration and production vessel, Bonga, reached a one billion barrel oil export milestone yesterday.
Elohor Aiboni, the managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo), characterized the achievement as a celebration of quality, leadership, and focused delivery that has significantly benefited Nigeria and Nigerians.
“One billion barrels is an exciting milestone,” said Aiboni, SNEPCo’ s first female Managing Director, adding, “I’m incredibly proud of all of our employees and contractors who’ve contributed to the success of the Bonga FPSO and the attainment of this remarkable achievement.”
Aiboni also commended SNEPCo’s co-venturers TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Agip Oil Company, and Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited for their helpful relationship with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and Bonga’s success.
In addition to its numerous social investment programs in health, education, and sports, the Bonga floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which started operations in 2005, is anchored 120 kilometers offshore in the Gulf of Guinea. Bonga consistently contributes to national revenue, the local capacity development of Nigerian engineers, and financial support for the service sector.
The three pillars of SNEPCo’s excellent delivery, in Aiboni’s opinion, are integrated delivery, continual improvement, and the support mechanism provided by the Shell Group’s technological capability.
“We are building a leading safe, simpler and cost-disciplined deep-water business that brings value to our partners, shareholders and Nigeria which remains a heartland for Shell,” she said.
With the continued drilling of wells in Bonga Phases 2 and 3, as well as a subsea tie-back that in August 2014 unlocked the nearby Bonga Northwest field, the Bonga FPSO vessel has experienced tremendous growth over time.
The renowned Platts Global Energy Awards in New York honored Bonga Northwest as the Engineering Project of the Year 2015 for its capacity to produce roughly 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Speaking on the Bonga billion-barrel milestone, the Country Chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, praised the crew at SNEPCo, the majority of whom are Nigerians, for their tenacity, dedication, and focus.
“I feel a strong sense of pride knowing that today, over 95 percent of SNEPCo staff, including those working on the Bonga FPSO, are trained Nigerian deep-water professionals, who daily contribute their quota, in the development of Nigeria’s deep-water hydrocarbon resources. The entire team should be incredibly proud of themselves,” Okunbor stated.
Bala Wunti, the Chief Upstream Investment Officer of NNPC’s Nigeria Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), sent congratulations to SNEPCo and its joint venture partners, “The many successes recorded by Bonga have continued to trigger significant development in Nigeria’s deep-water oil and gas exploration and production, for which reason the place of Bonga in Nigeria’s upstream DNA cannot be over-emphasised.”
