Chevron Sells 40% Stake in OMLs 86, 88 to Conoil

By Emmanuel Addeh

American oil giant, Chevron, has reportedly divested its last stake in old oil assets located in Nigeria’s shallow waters; Oil Mining Licenses (OMLs) 86 and 88, selling its 40 per cent stake to Conoil Producing Limited.

It was learnt that negotiations concerning the deal had been in the works for a while, with Conoil Producing, emerging the winner of the bid for the 40 per cent equity held by Chevron Corporation.

When contacted, a Spokesman for Chevron, Sola Adebawo, requested an e-mailed enquiry, but had yet to respond at the time of going to press, while another Spokesperson of Conoil also declined comments.

However, it was gathered that Conoil had already paid a deposit of $250 million for the purchase of the assets located in the Niger Delta basin, having been acquired by Chevron following its merger with Texaco 22 years ago.

While OML 86 comprises the Apoi, Funiwa, Sengana and Okubie fields, and the most recent discovery, Buko, OML 88 contains the Pennington and Middleton fields as well as Chioma field.

Chevron had been trying to dispose the shallow water acreages, but with the conclusion of the sale, the oil giant may have successfully divested of all the legacy shallow water assets it acquired when it purchased Texaco in 1999.

It had earlier between 2013 and 2015, sold its stakes in OMLs 83 and 85, both of them former Texaco Nigeria assets.

Chevron then re-launched sale of the 6,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day OMLs 86 and 88 last year, with the fields reported to have untapped potential of 55 million oil barrels and 2.8 trillion cubic feet of undeveloped gas reserves.

Aside Chevron, other International Oil Companies (IOCs) like Exxon Mobil and Shell had also been divesting from some of their assets, especial their onshore and shallow-water oil facilities to local companies in Nigeria.