The trio of Chevron Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have signed Sonam Project agreement.
The Sonam Project is a joint venture agreement that will see the development of proven and probable reserves of 211 million barrels.
The NNPC said in a statement that “The project is expected to begin to bear fruits in (the) next three and six months,” NNPC said in a statement, adding it was targeting production of 39,000 barrels per day of liquids and 283 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
The NNPC said it is also in a joint venture with Shell Petroleum Development Company would lead to the development of a project comprising of 156 development activities across 12 oil mining licences in the Niger Delta oil hub.
NNPC said the deal with Chevron would provide the $780 million needed to complete the Sonam project on which the U.S. company has already spent $1.5 billion.
NNPC said the project with Shell, called Santolina, required third-party funding of $1 billion, without saying whether this was covered by the deal.
Nigeria’s is Africa’s largest producer of crude oil but the country has failed to produce its counterpart funding in the wake of its recession that was caused by the crash in global crude prices.
