The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has disclosed that it has replaced Eroton Exploration and Production Limited as the new operator of oil mining lease (OML) 18.
NNPC spokesperson, Garba Deen Muhammad disclosed this known in a statement on Monday.
Prior to the development, Eroton operated OML 18 situated south of Port-Harcourt on behalf of the Eroton/NNPC joint venture.
The oil firm said the non-operating joint venture (JV) partners of OML 18 appointed its subsidiary — NNPC Eighteen Operating Limited — as the new operator of OML 18 to replace Eroton.
NNPC said the action was taken to curtail further degradation of the asset and revamp production of oil and gas.
“In order to protect the joint venture (JV) investment in OML 18, the non-operating partners, NNPC Limited (55 percent interest) and OML 18 Energy Limited (“OML 18 Energy” – 16.20 percent interest), jointly owning 71.20 percent equity, removed Eroton as operator of the JV in line with the provisions of the joint operating agreement (JOA).
“NNPC Limited and OML 18 Energy further appointed NNPC Eighteen Operating Limited as operator of the JV,” the statement reads.
“The change in operatorship has been notified to the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and communicated to Eroton.
“While the key business reasons that made the change in operatorship are compelling, it is publicly available information that production has declined from thirty thousand barrels per day (30,000 bpd) to zero.”
NNPC said the persisting inability of Eroton to meet the fiscal obligations of the federal government led to the sealing of Eroton’s head office in Lagos by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for more than 12 months due to non-payment of outstanding taxes.
It added that Eroton is also not able to “remit to the JV parties the proceeds of gas supplied to its affiliate, Notore”.
