In June, NNPC singed a deal with indigenous company First Exploration and Production and oil service giant Schlumberger to provide $700 million to develop two shallow water fields that will add 50,000 b/d of crude to Nigeria’s output.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation announced Thursday that it had agreed new funding arrangements with four foreign partners to develop new oil fields in the Niger Delta that will substantially augment Nigerian reserves and daily production.
Lack of funds has been a major stumbling block for NNPC, which manages the Nigerian government’s average 57% interest in joint ventures business with foreign oil companies, in its efforts to bolster Nigeria’s oil output.
NNPC group managing director Mainkanti Baru had said earlier on in May that alternative funding through third party financing option would be adopted to facilitate Nigeria’s bid to increase crude oil reserves to 40 billion barrels and output to 4 million b/d by 2020.