Mr. Osamede Okhomina, CEO, ADM Energy
-By Victoria Opeyemi
The Chief Executive ADM Energy Plc’s Osamede Okhomina, revealed the company’s decision to pay a $250,000 deposit, in cash and shares, for its previously announced acquisition of an additional 2.25% interest in the OML 113 asset in Nigeria.
Okhomina said, “ADM has completed the second stage of this agreement with EER which is an important step closer to concluding the transaction and increasing their position in what he describes as a high-quality asset.”
The ADM boss, explained that despite the wider, global macroeconomic issues, the longer-term outlook for the oil industry will be positive as fossil fuel still remains relevant across the globe.
On his part, The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, added that the approval had been given by President Muhammadu Buhari to schedule a bidding round for the country’s marginal fields and maybe launched soon.
Marginal fields in Nigeria apply to discoveries produced by major oil firms that are undeveloped, either due to distance from current production facilities, low reserves or potentially low quantities of output due to issues of flow control. Bidders will have 56 fields located on land, swamp and shallow water terrains to choose from.
However, the Ministry of Petroleum was of the view that the whole process could be concluded in six weeks.
According to the ministry, “The data prying and other items can take place within that time and they can happen digitally.”
The last marginal field bid round was conducted in 2002. Twenty-four fields were given to 32 companies, in 2003. Nigeria has been planning for a marginal field round of bidding for more than 10 years.
Some of the companies that won bid round have also failed to produce or work on the fields leaving them dormant. The Jonathan administration had in mind to revoke the license of some marginal field operators in 2015, but that process could not see the light of the day since the government was laid to rest in that same year.
It is not clear if the current administration under President Mohammadu Buhari will toe the same line with his predecessors on fields that are yet to operate or license revoked.
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