Platform Petroleum Limited, on behalf of the Platform Petroleum/Newcross Petroleum Joint Venture, is pleased to announce the commencement of Production from their Asuokpu/Umutu Marginal Field less than three years after taking over the Field in November 2004. This onset of production is the climax of two years of painstaking work by the two wholly owned Nigerian Companies involving the testing and completion of two wells, design, construction, installation and commissioning of a 10,000bopd Flowstation and 48 kilometers of delivery pipeline as well as ancillary facilities.
This feat, quietly but efficiently achieved by this partnership, is unique in several ways:
• This is the first of the twenty four Marginal Fields licensed in 2003 to be successfully brought on production.
• This is the first Joint Venture Partnership between two Nigerian Companies to successfully develop and operate a field in Nigeria.
• This whole project has been planned and executed, to the tune of almost thirty million dollars ($3Omillion) without a foreign Technical Partner.
• Funding for this whole project, which was sourced through a mixture of Equity and Debt funds, was entirely raised in Nigeria.
• This project fills a critical gap in processing and gathering facilities in the Northern part of the Western Niger Delta as it provides a much needed hub in an otherwise No man’s land.
• By this project, Platform Petroleum and Newcross Petroleum have initiated a new and very refreshing concept of cluster development as the facilities we have built are available for use by a cluster of four other Marginal Fields around us, thus promoting more efficient use of common facilities and more cost effective field development options.
Platform Petroleum Limited, a Company promoted by sixteen Nigeria Oil and Gas Professionals, has Professor Emeritus O. S. Adegoke as Chairman and Mr. Austin Avuru, a fellow and Past President of NAPE as Managing Director/CEO. Platform won the Asuokpu/Umutu Marginal Field in a keenly contested technical bid round in February 2003. After executing a Farmout Agreement with the Shell/NNPC JV in 2004, the field was handed over to us in November of the same year.
On April 01, 2005, Platform went into a Joint Venture Partnership with Newcross Petroleum Limited, a Company promoted by another team of core Nigerian oil and gas Professionals led by Dr. Festus A. Fadeyi, as Chairman and Dr. Bolaji Ogundare is the Managing Director. By this arrangement, forty percent (40%) of the Field was assigned to Newcross as Joint Venture Partners with Platform retaining 60% and remaining the Operator of the Venture.
In August, 2005, the Field Development process moved into high gear, resulting in:
• Re-entry, testing and completion of two wells.
• Design, construction, installation and commissioning of a 10,000bopd Flowstation.
• Design, construction and commissioning of two segments of 6 and 8 delivery pipelines covering 48kilometers.
• Design, construction and commissioning of a Crude Oil Custody Transfer Station to meter export crude from Umutu Flowstation.
This commencement of production marks the take-off of a major phase in the Local Content Development scheme of the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Marginal Field Program. A world class Independent, with enormous potential for rapid growth has just been unleashed into the Nigerian E & P Sector.
