Lagos State Joins Oil-producing States As Aje Field Begins Production

Twenty years after it was discovered, the Aje field located in Oil Mining Lease 113 has achieved its first oil, putting Lagos, Nigeria's commercial city, on the list of oil-producing states in the country.

The milestone is coming after several missed targets for the achievement of first oil in the state.

Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Ltd, a wholly-owned indigenous firm and operator of the OML 113 offshore Lagos, on Tuesday announced commencement of production of crude oil from the field. 

Other partners are New Age Exploration Nigeria Limited, EER (Colobus) Nigeria Limited, Pan Petroleum (Panoro Energy) Aje Limited and PR Oil & Gas Nigeria Limited.

Panoro had in an update posted on its website on April 20 said the final hook-up procedures were in progress with a view to bringing the wells into production shortly.

The YFP said after over 25 years of exploratory, appraisal and developmental activities, it had successfully pioneered the opening of the Frontier Benin Embayment, describing the Aje field as the first to record production from this part of Nigeria and the first production outside of the Niger Delta.

It said the inauguration of the Front Puffin Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel was successfully completed after its arrival in Nigeria on March 16, 2016.

Oil produced from the Aje field will be stored on the Front Puffin, which has production capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day and storage capacity of 750,000 barrels, according to the YFP.

The Chairman, YFP, Tunde Folawiyo, was quoted to have said, “The attainment of this milestone is indeed a laudable achievement not just for the YFP, but for the Nigerian oil and gas industry as a whole and indeed Lagos State, which can now be addressed as an oil-producing state.”

He said recording the achievement in the present global oil climate, together with the peculiar challenges of the field, was clearly a no mean feat. We say congrats to them for getting it done!