Shell has taken a final investment decision (FID) on Nigeria's Bonga North field, aiming for first oil from the deepwater project by 2030. The firm expects crude production from Bonga North to peak at 110,000 b/d but it has not given a timeframe.
Bonga North — which currently has estimated recoverable resources of over 300mn bl of oil equivalent (boe) — will involve drilling up to 16 wells and will be tied back to the existing 225,000 b/d Bonga floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility.
The FPSO already handles output from the Bonga Main and Bonga North West fields, which started up in 2005 and 2014, respectively. Crude production from the FPSO averaged 120,000 b/d in January-November, with output in November rising by 9pc on the month to 135,000 b/d, according to Nigeria's upstream regulator NUPRC.
Shell said modifications to the FPSO will be required to accommodate Bonga North, but a source told Argus today that these will largely be limited to the facility's topsides. The company previously told Argus that a separate and more thoroughgoing FPSO life-extension programme, which "will run well into 2029", had been put in place because the facility was originally designed to operate only until 2025.
Shell's Nigerian offshore subsidiary operates the Bonga North project with a 55pc stake under a production-sharing contract with state-owned NNPC. ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Italy's Eni are the other project partners with 20pc 12.5pc and 12.5pc stakes, respectively.
The Bonga fields are located in Nigeria's OML 118 licence at water depths exceeding 1,000m. In addition to Bonga Main, Bonga North West and Bonga North, the block also holds the undeveloped Bonga South West oil field, which NNPC said will be developed in three phases. Bonga South West will have its own separate FPSO and produce 150,000 b/d at peak between 2027 and 2031, NNPC said.
