Nigeria: Ororo seabed survey in preparation ahead of rig arrival

Investment company Sirius Petroleum has executed a contract with Polaris Consulting Company which has been hired to undertake a seabed survey around the Ororo field license area, offshore Nigeria. 

The Ororo field, discovered in 1986, is located within OML 95 in shallow waters offshore Ondo State.

It is operated by Guarantee Petroleum (55% interest) with Owena Oil & Gas as its partner (45%). Sirius Petroleum acts as the technical and financing partner in the development of the field. The partners in July gained an approval by the Federal Ministry of Environment regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which covers the drilling of 3 wells on the Ororo Field and the installation of wellhead platforms.

Last November, Sirius signed an innovative rig deal with China’s COSL Drilling for the provision of a jack-up drilling rig to be used for the Ororo field well campaign. According to the deal, COSL will take payment for the charter at a later date.

Also in November, Sirius signed a well management contract for the Ororo field with Add Energy. Come December and the oilfield services provider Schlumberger also joined the team with a contract for the provision of an integrated services management.

Ahead of the proposed drilling program, Sirius in February started raising funds for equipment mobilization deposits.

On Monday, Sirius informed that the marine vessel conducting the survey will mobilize to site in early April and it is anticipated that the survey will take approximately two weeks to complete.

This activity is a geophysical and geotechnical marine survey, ahead of the rig mobilization, which will provide data and analysis for the rig positioning prior to drilling and assess any marine geohazards to ensure safe operations and transportation of equipment, Sirius said.

Sirius explained that this is a requirement by rig providers and as such the company has been instructed by COSL Drilling to conduct this survey in order to finalize the rig selection from the fleet of jack-up rigs owned by COSL, ahead of the anticipated multi-well campaign.

Bobo Kuti, CEO of Sirius, commented: “We are pleased to have signed this contract with Polaris and look forward to receiving the results of the seabed survey in due course. This is another important step forward and when completed will allow the jack-up rig to be mobilized to site.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff