The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Energy Resources (DOS-ENR) under the Energy and Mineral Governance Program (EMGP) and Deloitte, as the implementing partner to meet its net-zero carbon goals by embarking on a project aimed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through methane abatement plans and strategies consistent with international leading practices.

The pilot project which is at its conceptual stage was the focus of a three-day Technical Assistance on Oil & Gas Sector Global Methane Abatement and Decarbonisation Workshop which kicked off at the PTDF Tower, in Abuja, on Monday. The project technical training is sponsored by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources’ Energy and Mineral Governance Programme (EMGP

The workshop, which is a follow-up on the July 2023 capacity building Training on Methane Baselining and Organisational Design and the Development of a Methane Technology Evaluation Framework, is aimed at defining the critical success elements for the Methane Abatement Pilot Project Implementation, Scaling and Financing.

Some of the critical elements of the project tabled at the workshop include determining the scope of the project, establishing a baseline for methane and carbon emissions from the selected operation sites, collecting relevant data on the selected sites and helping the Deloitte consultants understand the operations and expectations of NNPC Ltd.

Participants at the workshop unanimously selected OML 34 located onshore in Western Niger Delta which has the Utorogu and Ughelli Fields as the operation site for the pilot stage of the project. Participants were drawn from relevant NNPC Ltd.’s subsidiaries and Departments such as Exploration & Production; New Energy; Gas Infrastructure; Health, Safety, and Environment, as well as the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and Federal Government agencies like the National Council on Climate Change.

OML 34

OML 34 is located in the Western Niger Delta and covers an area of some 950 square kilometers. The producing fields are Utorogu, Ughelli East, and Ughelli West, with total flowstation capacity of 90 Mbpd. Warri River field was previously a producing field until an imposed shut-in in 1997. The field is expected to return to production. The block has two Gas Plants; one in Utorogu field with 360 MMscfd capacity and the other in Ughelli East field with 90 MMscfd capacity.

The combined fields currently produce an average of about 390 MMscfd of gas, and 17,000 bpd of oil and condensate. OML 34 is of national importance for domestic gas supply, as well as feeding gas supply into the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) to neighbouring countries of Benin, Togo, and Ghana.

NNPCL with a 55% participating interest in the asset is the Operator on record. The asset is jointly operated by an Asset Management Team (AMT) made up of personnel from both NNPC and ND Western Limited in which Aradel is a significant Shareholder.  In 2012, the Aradel led consortium, through a special purpose vehicle – ND Western Limited, completed the acquisition of the 45% interests of the Shell/Total/Agip JV in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 34, after a historic signing ceremony with NNPC/Shell/Total and Agip JV.