North-east company Eland Oil and Gas is reaping the rewards of record production from an oilfield more than 3,000 miles from home.
Eland, based in Westhill, Aberdeenshire, said yesterday a “highly successful” well workover on its onshore Opuama asset in Nigeria during the final quarter of 2015 had raised output by more than 50% to 4,500 barrels of oil per day.
The company is now turning its attention to two other low cost workovers on the field, in which it has a 45% stake.
Opuama – part of the OML40 licence in the Niger Delta – has been in production since February 2014, although there was also output before a shutdown in 2006.
The field ended 2015 with production of about 4,500 barrels per day, including 2,1025 net to Eland though a joint-venture.
Eland chief executive George Maxwell said: “The strong production performance from the Opuama field in OML40 continued throughout 2015, with production and uptime at record levels.
“We are excited by the prospect of completing the further workover opportunity on Opuama-3 (well) within the next two months.
“This involves intervention on both production strings which we expect will increase gross production by a further 50 to 100%.”
Eland, which is currently waiting for formal ratification of its operatorship of OML40, said its ability to substantially boost production through workover operations was “extremely encouraging”.
Mr Maxwell added: “We also see the potential for re-entry, completion and production of (OML40s) Gbetiokun-1 well later this year.
“The successful completion of these two workover projects are expected to increase production on OML 40 without using a drilling rig.
“At the year end of 2015 we had available cash of over $8million (£5.6million), having drawn only $15million (£10.5million) of a $35million (£24.5million) committed facility from Standard Chartered Bank.
“Our short-term focus on highly accretive workovers will insure that our capital expenditure requirements for 2016 remain modest.”
Eland embarked on a cost reduction programme last year in response to falling oil prices. It s targeting a 30% reduction in operating costs by the end of March.
The West Africa-focused company also has a 40% interest in the Ubima field, just north of Port Harcourt in Nigeria.
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