Eroton Exploration & Production Company Limited is on an aggressive campaign to ensure a reduction in its oil production cost.
Speaking with newsmen on the sideline of the 2018 Nigerian Oil and Gas conference, Theo Okeke, executive director and chief technical officer, Eroton E&P, said the company adopted a new way of thinking to its operation in order to achieve success.
According to him, the success story of moving from less than 10,000 bpd oil production to almost 65,000bpd can be hinged on the company’s creativity.
He said, “We have a lot in the pipeline. As you know, we started production about three years ago and we have been optimizing our operations to get the best out of the old assets. For instance, we were producing less than 10,000 bpd but now we have been able to move up to 65,000 bpd peak production and we keep growing.
“We achieved this by optimizing and using the new ways of thinking. We added this production not by drilling a single well but by optimizing the existing infrastructure.
“I personally believe strongly in new way of doing things, thinking out of the box and being creative. For instance, within our asset because it’s a brown field- old asset we produce oil and water and everything is pumped to the terminal.
“We told ourselves why are we doing this because what they charge as tariff on the pipeline is the liquid and the total volume we put in the pipeline- both the crude and the water. So, why are we paying to export water from our field to the terminal?
“Why don’t we take out the water within our field and inject it for pressure maintenance? And we’ll impact on that. Hopefully before the year runs out, we will be injecting it into some reservoirs that we have identified which will save us cost. It will save us about $3.20 we are paying now as tariff for any barrel of liquid. So, imagine that.
“We do a lot of Do –It –Yourself. We do the entire major overhaul in-house. When we started there was a lot of corrective maintenance but now we have very minimal breakdown of facility and equipment,” he added.
According to him, this was done in order to deepen its Nigerian content drive as it engages its host communities in its operations.
In his words, “We recognized that the communities have something to offer. I mean we should give them the opportunities to also benefit from what is happening.
“We told them it will be a win-win situation and because of that, we have not had any shutdown due to community issues because we have a special way of dialoguing with them.
“We develop their capacities to get to do things for us. So, we told them it is not a matter of we giving you bread every time, we also want to help you so that you can do it yourself.
“So, they bid for contracts just like any other person, they win and get the job done. So, we are happy about that which has helped us a lot,” he stated.
Source: Petrol Gas Report