Nigeria’s first deep-water exploration and production vessel, Bonga, hit the one-billion-barrel oil export mark on Monday, three months after a major turnaround maintenance (TAM) of the facility was completed.
The director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCO), Elohor Aiboni, disclosed this information.
This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication put in by Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) employees as well as their contractors, who contributed to the success of this project. Elohor Aiboni, SNEPCo’s first female managing director, expressed her pride at achieving such an impressive feat, saying, “I’m incredibly proud of all our employees and contractors who have contributed to the success.”
Aiboni also attributed the success of Bonga to the supportive partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Agip Oil Company, and Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited.
Bonga’s floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which began operations in 2005, is anchored 120 kilometers offshore in the Gulf of Guinea and has consistently delivered value in national revenue, local capacity development of Nigerian engineers, and funding support to the service industry, in addition to its many social investment programmes in health, education, and sports.
According to Aiboni, the integrated delivery approach, continuous improvement, and the support lever offered by the technological prowess of the Shell Group were the pillars of SNEPCo’s excellence in delivery.
“We are building a leading, safe, simpler, and more cost-disciplined deep-water business that brings value to our partners, shareholders, and Nigeria, which remains a heartland for Shell,” she said.
The Bonga FPSO vessel has enjoyed significant expansion over the years with the further drilling of wells in Bonga Phases 2 and 3 and through a subsea tie-back that unlocked the nearby Bonga Northwest field in August 2014. Bonga Northwest can produce approximately 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and was named Engineering Project of the Year 2015 at the prestigious Platts Global Energy Awards in New York.
