Bonga Oil and Gas Field expansion project in Nigeria to delay

The proposed extension of the Bonga Oil and Gas Field in Nigeria has been postponed for two more years. Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC) announced the delays has been attributed to delays in the tendering process.

In May 2021 the oil company signed a deal with Shell Petroleum Development Company along with its partners giving the project, which had been shelved for quite a while due to a long-standing tax dispute a new impetus.

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Bonga Oil and Gas Field

“After the dispute was resolved, Shell invited bids for the construction of new floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for the Bonga Southwest deep-water oil field.The response to the tender had however been underwhelming, and there has been a delay in progressing with the tendering process as a result. The tenders have therefore been put on hold till around 2024,” explained the firm.

Bonga Oil and Gas Field is Nigeria’s first deep-water oil field that was discovered back in 1996 and began the first production in November 2005 through an FPSO vessel. Located in License block OPL 212 off the Nigerian coast, it currently has the capacity to produce 225,000 b/d of crude oil and 150 MMcf/d of gas that is fed to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) plant at Bonny. There are also speculations that the delay could be a result of a change in Shell’s upstream strategy as part of its net-zero ambitions.