WAPCo Eyes Gas Supply From Lagos Oil Field

• WAPCo Eyes Gas Supply From Lagos Oil Field

The West Africa Pipeline Company Limited has said it is looking to capture new gas supply from Nigeria, with a focus on the Aje field offshore Lagos, as part of its key interventions to reposition the company for the dynamic market landscape.

WAPCo is the operator of the $1bn West African Gas Pipeline, which was built to supply natural gas from Nigeria to customers in Benin, Togo and Ghana.

The Managing Director, WAPCo, Mr. Walter Perez, who spoke in Lagos at a business forum organised by the Nigerian Gas Association, said the company was also seeking increased supply from the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System.

He disclosed that the transition to a bi-directional pipeline system from a uni-directional system was meant to increase capacity and accommodate new entry points amid significant unmet demand along the WAGP market.

He said the growing market in the sub-region had seen Ghana, Togo, and Benin compete with Nigeria domestic gas market for new Nigerian supply.

According to Perez, there is an increasing appetite for natural gas as a cleaner energy source but significant supply gap still exists, increasing attention towards Liquefied Natural Gas.

He said steps to reposition WAPCo for the dynamic market landscape included the facilitation of multiple shippers operating under the open-access regime; diversification and attraction of new robust supply; adaption of the WAGP configuration to reflect changing supply and demand patterns, and transition from single postage stamp to a more robust and flexible tariff structure for the WAGP by January 1, 2019.

He said the company would attract substantial gas supply from western Ghana, as well as capture re-gasified LNG for transport through the WAGP.

“WAPCo is adapting its business model to suit market dynamics; transitioning to bi-directional, multi/entry exit system, and offering a competitive tariff to attract new gas volumes,” Perez said.

Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited, a wholly-owned indigenous firm, is the operator of OML 113, where the Aje field is located.

Other partners are Panoro Energy, New Age Exploration Nigeria Limited, EER (Colobus) Nigeria Limited and PR Oil & Gas Nigeria Limited.

It was gathered in December that the partners had planned to embark on a work programme that would increase oil production and reserves from the field through drilling of new wells, and were working on an Aje gas field development plan for the phase 3 Turonian gas development with first gas production anticipated by the first half of 2018.

One of the partners, Panoro, said then that a third Turonian gas condensate development phase was being conceptualised and would likely involve three or four wells producing over 500 billion cubic feet of gas, 22 million barrels of condensate and 40 million barrels of liquefied petroleum gas.

Aje is an offshore field located in OML 113 in the western part of Nigeria in the Dahomey Basin.

It contains hydrocarbon resources in sandstone reservoirs in three main levels – a Turonian gas condensate reservoir, a Cenomanian oil reservoir and an Albian gas condensate reservoir.