The Lagos State Government on May 11, 2010 confirmed that oil and gas production and exploration would soon commence following a vast discovery of the natural resources in the Badagry area, which it described as a major breakthrough in the history of Lagos. This followed the declaration of Aje field a commercial prospect in February 2009.
The Aje field is operated by Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited (YFP).
Aje field is currently in the development planning stage, with first production expected in 2014. The field is expected to reach a plateau production of 50,000-80,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) a day.
Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum, part of the Yinka Folawiyo Group, is one of the active indigenous privately-owned and managed oil companies in Nigeria.
In June 1992, Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 309 was granted to the company as a Sole Risk Contract under the Nigerian Government’s Indigenous Allocation Programme. This concession block was converted to OML 113 in June, 1998, with an initial term of 20-years, following the discovery of the Aje oilfield. The OML 113 licence, located offshore in south-western Nigeria close to the producing Seme field in the Benin Embayment, covers approximately 454,000 acres.
Aje field is defined by high quality 3D seismic data and two wells, Aje#1 and Aje#2, were drilled in 1996 and 1997 respectively, from a surface location on 300 feet of water. Aje-1 discovery well encountered oil and gas reservoirs in commercial quantities.
Aje-2, 1 km east of Aje-1, is an appraisal well, which confirmed the reservoir and hydrocarbon accumulation discovered in Aje-1.
In August of 2005, Aje#3 vertical appraisal well was drilled in approximately 3000ft water depth. Although the reservoir quality was not optimum, the well encountered an oil and gas bearing column.
Owing to the voluntary withdrawal of previous Technical Partners (CMI Group), YFP, in September 2007, entered into a Joint-Venture Partnership with Chevron Nigeria Deepwater H Limited, a subsidiary of Chevron Corporations as Technical Adviser.
In the first quarter of 2008, another appraisal well called Aje-4 was drilled. Drilling of the Aje-4 well confirmed the field contains a laterally extensive reservoir structure. The field was declared a commercial prospect in February 2009.
The field is currently in the development planning stage, with first production expected in 2014. The field is expected to reach a plateau production of 50,000-80,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) a day.
Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum is the operator of OML 113 with 60% interest. The remaining 40% is owned by a joint venture of Chevron Nigeria Deepwater, Vitol Exploration Nigeria, Panoro Energy, Energy Equity Resources and Jacka Resources.
Providence Resources Oil and Gas earlier held a 2.667% interest in the OML 113. It was sold to Jacka in December 2011. During the same period, Chevron announced its plans to sell its interest to Energy Equity Resources.
Unlike the majority of Nigerian Fields which are Tertiary sandstones, Aje has multiple oil, gas and gas condensate reservoirs in the Turonian, Cenomanian and Albian sandstones, and as such has more affinity with the recent Jubilee and Tweneboa discoveries offshore Ghana
In other words, the Aje field is a real success story considering its closeness to the Benin Embayment, which is located along the West African Transform Margin – a prolific petroleum fairway containing the Jubilee field, a world-class, long-life production asset; Tweneboa oil and gas condensate field; and Vitol E&P’s Sankofa and Gye Nyame fields, offshore Ghana.
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