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Foreign investors woo Bayelsa Government on Atala Oifield

By on August 5, 2015

Following the determination of Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State to develop the state-owned  Atala oilfield, several foreign investors were said to have indicated interest in the marginal asset, THISDAY has learnt.
It was gathered that during the recent Bayelsa State Investment and Economic Forum in Yenagoa, promoters of some foreign companies met officials of the state government for possible partnership.

Atala oil field is located on Oil Mining Lease (OML) 46, is one of the 24 Marginal fields allocated to 31 indigenous companies and state owned companies during the marginal fields licensing round in 2003.

Out of the 24 marginal fields, Atala field is one of the eight fields developed by investors to a point of producing and contributing one per cent to Nigeria’s daily crude oil production.

One of the promoters of foreign investors from Houston, Texas in United States told THISDAY at the weekend that the meeting provided him the opportunity to study the successes recorded by the state government.

“We are quite aware of the short period of turning around the fortune of Atala within two years of the take-over by Century Exploration and Production Limited through the initiative of Governor Dickson. Since the government has no business doing business, we are interested in replicating strategies adopted by Gov Dickson in other sectors in the State and Parts of Nigeria,” he said.

“As part of  Gov Dickson’s  plan for Bayelsa State, he put the state in the nation’s oil and gas map as the first and only state that brought to production its oil field-Atala field. This is one of the achievements recorded by the governor since his assumption of office on Feb 14, 2012,” he added.

It was gathered that the commencement of production by Atala field was made possible as a follow up to the engagement of Century Exploration and Production Limited (CEPL) by Dickson  as the technical and funding partner on assumption of office in 2012.

The breakdown of the participatory interest shows that BOCL owns 51 per cent, CEPL-29 per cent and Hardy-20 per cent.

Atala 1 well was successfully re-entered,completed,tested and rig released on Aug 11,2014. The extended Well test commenced on Dec 20, 2014 with peak production of 6,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) with planned production of 5000 boepd.

The field has recorded estimated cumulative production of about 60,000 barrels in storage barges,

The Atala field is a role model for oil industry development for Public Private Partnership (PPP).

 

[ThisDay]