Nigeria's Belemaoil resumes oil lease 55 operations after a three-year hiatus

The Nigerian independent producer Belemaoil Producing announced on Monday that it has resumed its operations at Oil Mining Lease 55, after a three year shutdown due to theft-related damage.

Belemaoil purchased OML 55 from Chevron Corporation in February 2015, which is located in an area of swampy to shallow waters, about 40km west of Bonny's oil export terminal.

Belemaoil's spokesperson stated that the OML 55 operations were stopped in 2021 because of rampant thefts from the delivery line leading to Bonny.

The company claims that the block has five oilfields, which produce 14,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It also produces more than 70 millions standard cubic feet per day.

The spokesperson stated that the arrival of the floating oil storage vessel OML 55 at OML55 on October 6 was "a major milestone" in the efforts by the company to restart production.

Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, is trying hard to increase crude production, which has been falling in recent years because of large-scale thefts and sabotage, forcing oil majors out of onshore drilling, to concentrate on deepwater oil production. Tife Owolabi, reporting from Yenagoa. Elisha Gbogbo, writing; Jan Harvey editing.

(source: Reuters)