The company’s Communication Manager, Mrs. Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, who conveyed the development in a statement yesterday, said while $2.562bn was the actual cost for the acquisition of the block and Nembe pipeline, additional funds have also been earmarked as working capital.
She reiterated that her company led five other companies to win the bid for the prolific oil bloc, saying: “It is a total misinformation in the local and international media that it is the ‘Taleveras-led consortium’ that acquired OML 29 divested by Shell. Therefore, it had become necessary to correct the misleading media reports about the acquisition of OML 29, the most prolific of the oil blocks sold off by Shell.”
She explained that the Aiteo Group, whose major business areas include exploration and production, issued this statement in order to clarify various reports that carried misleading stories about the details of the transaction.
The OML 29 has proven and probable reserves (P1+P2) at about 2.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), while its hydrocarbon fields could deliver as much as 160,000 barrels of oil per day and 300 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmsc/d) at peak output.
She explained that the acquisition of the OML 29, as well as the Nembe Creek Trunk line, which has served as Nigeria’s major crude oil transportation channel through the Niger Delta to the Atlantic coast, is a major boost for the Nigerian local content development initiative.
She said the Trunk Line is also an extremely valuable asset as it is a vessel for other oil exploration companies in Nigeria to pay to use in transporting their oil to international market.
According to her, the acquisition has deepened Nigeria’s indigenous participation in oil and gas exploration, adding that the company will put its competence to bear in this new deal which will see Aiteo execute content to the latter.
