The management of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has expressed its readiness to invest additional $3 billion in its existing stakes in offshore oil and gas operations in Nigeria.
Yuan Guangyu, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Beijing based corporation announced this while leading a team CNOOC top executives to the corporate headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
According to him, CNOOC had invested over $14 billion in its Nigerian operations, even as he called on the management of the NNPC to seek common grounds of beneficial interest with CNOOC for enhanced productivity.
Yuan Guangyu said Nigeria remained the largest investment destination for CNOOC.
Responding, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, who was represented by Dr. Victor Babatunde Adeniran, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ventures Autonomous Business Unit of the corporation, thanked CNOOC for its interest in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry.
He said the corporation was open to new investments and would foster meaningful and mutually beneficial relations with credible entities like CNOOC.
Recall that The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shell, Total and Eni recently signed the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) contract of Train 7 (T7) of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (NLNG).
The NLNG T7 expansion project aims to increase NLNG production capacity from 22 MPTA to over 30 MTPA by the debottle-necking of T1-6 and the addition of train T7 and associated infrastructure at an estimated cost of US$4.3 billion. The target Final Investment Decision (FID) date is fourth quarter 2018.
Founded in 1982, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation is one of the three big Chinese national oil entities. CNOOC is originally focused on offshore exploration and production, whereas the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is slanted towards onshore upstream exploration and production. SINOPEC, the third of the tripod, is focused on refining and marketing.
