Financial Energy Review
by James Ikenna…………..
Vitol, which holds a fifth of Nigeria’s total crude and condensate production in Nigeria has declared interest to move into US shale basins as it hold sway in Nigeria’s deepwater blocks OML 127 and OML 130, which include the major deepwater fields of Agbami, Akpo and Egina is now set to acquire mature, producing oil and gas assets in the US’ onshore shale basins.
The company has created a Subsidary called Vencer Energy to be headed by Don Dotson, the former CEO of Sable Bay Energy and COO of Plantation Petroleum, Vitol said.
“I am looking forward to leveraging my decades of industry experience operating in multiple basins to build a large-scale oil and gas enterprise,” Dotson said in a statement.
Vitol though a relative newcomer to the upstream sector has over time increased its production footprint in Africa . In the year 2018, Vitol went into a $1.4-million buyout of Petrobras’ Nigerian oil assets.
Vitol also holds stakes in a number of producing upstream assets in West Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Americas which currently produce around 32,000 b/d of oil equivalent.
The move into shale basins in the US Lower 48 states would mark Vitol’s first US upstream positions. One of the company’s major offshore assets is the Sankofa OCTP project in Ghana which produces a gross rate of 45,000 b/d of crude and around 200 MMcf/d into the domestic gas infrastructure.
Some of its other key upstream assets are in Mexico, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.
“Vitol has more than 20 years of experience developing and operating E&P assets globally,” Head of Vitol Americas Ben Marshall said in the statement.
“Vitol’s strong balance sheet and global operating experience, coupled with Don’s extensive US-focused technical and operating experience is a powerful combination of capabilities for success” he said.
