Rapid production start-up and gas for domestic consumption: Time to market and sustainability are confirmed levers of Eni's success
Eni has started the production of gas and condensates since the discovery of Obiafu 3, carried out in the Niger Delta, in Nigeria, in just 41 weeks. The discovery contains a volume of hydrocarbons in place equal to approximately 28 billion cubic meters of gas and 60 million barrels of condensate, and the gas produced will be destined largely to the domestic market in order to increase the availability of local electricity.
The time to market record was made possible thanks to Eni's new integrated model, which envisages on the one hand that the various disciplines work in parallel already during the exploration phase, and on the other that the synergies achievable with neighboring production plants are enhanced. At the end of the ramp-up phase of the well, production will reach a flow rate of approximately 3 million cubic meters of gas and 3000 condensate barrels per day.
The gas produced is processed at the Ob-Ob plant, a hub operated by Eni, and then destined for the Okpai plant, also operated by Eni, the first independent power plant and one of the most efficient in the country. Okpai currently has an installed power of 500 MW and an upgrade is underway that will double its capacity to 1 GW. This will allow Eni to generate the 20% of the entire national electricity production available, establishing itself as a leader among the electricity producers in the country.
In Nigeria, approximately 30% of the gas produced and operated by Eni is destined for the domestic market, a clear sign of the company's attention to the issues of both environmental and economic sustainability of its business for local communities. Eni's commitment in this regard is also witnessed by the continuous attention and strengthening of the activities aimed at reducing flaring phenomena, through a strategy that aims at its total zeroing by 2025 (flaring down).
The sale of gas that was previously flared to local companies represents a further contribution to the development of the domestic gas market in addition to the local economy itself.
In addition to the Okpai power plant, Eni supplies electricity directly from its facilities to 85 local communities with a catchment area of approximately 500.000 people. The needs and needs of the country are at the center of Eni's strategy since the start of activities in the country in 1962, with initiatives related to access to energy, social and agricultural development, education and training, the health care, environmental protection and culture. Only in the last 10 years have more than 1.000 sustainability projects been implemented, over 400 km of roads and 150 structures built between schools and hospitals, significantly contributing to improving the quality of life of the communities in which Eni operates. Among the most impactful projects, the Green River Project, an integrated program of business development in the agricultural sector, designed to contribute to the promotion of an autonomous development path in the Niger delta, which from 32 years benefits from more than 120 communities for a total of over 500.000 people in the states of Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers and Imo.
Eni is present in Nigeria by the 1962 with exploration, development and production, operated and not operated, on an area of 30.049 Km2 in the onshore and offshore of the Niger Delta. In the 2018 the equity production was of 100.000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.