By Adewale Sanyaolu
One year after acquiring 45 per cent stake in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 17, Heirs Holdings has issued a tender for work on the Elelenwa multi-phase pump gathering station.
Heirs Holdings acquired the 45 per cent stake from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total E&P and Eni. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) holds the remaining 55 per cent.
Heirs Holdings Oil and Gas said it was seeking interested and pre-qualified contractors for the work. The contractor will carry out the work under an engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning (EPIC) contract.
The scope covers work through to start up of a pump gathering station for well fluids from the Elelenwa West manifold and flow to Agbada-1 flow station for processing. The Agbada field is in the middle of the licence, while Elelenwa is in the south, close to Port Harcourt.
Scope includes a mini front-end engineering and design (FEED), followed by a detailed engineering design. Work will also include the provision of a schedule, site surveys and power generation. The supplier will also provide two years of operational spares, deliver the pump and other facilities to site, carry out performance testing and finally handover.
The company requires interested bidders to be pre-qualified in the NipeX joint qualification system database. They must also submit details on how they will comply with local content requirements. Bids must include commercial and technical tenders at the same time.
Heirs Holdings’ purchase from the three IOCS in early 2021 included Schlumberger as a technical partner, while Shell’s trading arm is an offtaker. Financing involved United Capital, Afreximbank, ABSA, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Union Bank of Nigeria, Hybrid Capital and Amundi. Standard Chartered acted as global co-ordinater.
OML 17 currently produces 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It has 2P reserves of 1.2 billion boe, with another 1bn boe of exploration potential. The company has said infrastructure in the area could allow production of 200,000 bpd of oil and 300 million cubic feet per day of gas.
The oil company had in May 2021, appointed Osayande Igiehon as CEO, joining the company from Shell. Heirs Holdings’ Chairman, Tony Elumelu, is also chairman of the oil unit.
Igiehon, had, while speaking on his appointment, said ‘‘Heirs Holding Oil and Gas represented an “extraordinary opportunity to create Africa’s first true integrated energy company, with a mission to ensure that Africa’s natural resources are directed toward value creation in Africa, powered by sustainable, robust and abundant African energy”.
It appointed senior executives in August, including CFO, Samuel Nwanze, and a number of former Shell employees.
Heirs Holdings has plans to cut flaring and increase power generation. The company had said OML 17 will “drive an integrated energy strategy to deliver the benefits of meeting energy demands, while improving labour productivity in the country”.