The Minister of Petroleum Resources and the chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, and Eni CEO, Claudio Descalzi, have signed a MoU to further strengthen the longstanding partnership in Nigeria.
NNPC and Eni, through its subsidiaries Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and Nigerian Agip Exploration (NAE), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday to promote new activities that can “significantly boost Nigeria’s social and economic development.”
Eni said that, regarding the upstream sector, oil and gas production operations would intensify with an increased focus on development and exploration activities in the onshore, offshore and ultra-deepwater operated areas.
Concerning the refining sector, the parties agreed to cooperate on the rehabilitation and enhancement of the Port Harcourt refinery.
Also, the two companies discussed power issues and concluded that access to energy would be further enhanced by doubling the power generation capacity in the Okpai IPP through the fast track development of its Phase II, making it one of the largest combined cycle power plants in Africa. The MoU set a basis for entering into renewable energy projects, to secure energy accessibility in the country’s most remote areas.
Eni has been operating in Nigeria since 1962 mainly in onshore and offshore exploration & production. Activities are conducted over a developed and undeveloped area of 32,015 square kilometers in the onshore and offshore Niger Delta. In the production and development phase, Eni is the operator of four onshore Oil Mining Leases (OMLs), three offshore OMLs and holds service contracts in two OMLs.
As partners of SPDC JV, the largest joint venture in the country, Eni also holds an interest in 19 onshore blocks and three conventional offshore blocks. In the exploration phase, Eni is the operator of three offshore OMLs and one onshore. Eni also has a stake in OML 135.