1. The deep waters of the Gulf of Guinea hold rich resources of oil and gas.
Tapping into these fields will deliver vital energy to help meet growing
demand in Nigeria and beyond.
The Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), which
carries out Shell’s offshore activities in Nigeria, is drawing on the Shell
Group’s industry-leading deep water expertise to deliver safe, economic
projects that provide jobs and training for local people.
SHELL IN NIGERIA
UNLOCKING
NIGERIA’S POTENTIAL
IN DEEP WATER
Production capacity of
Bonga FPSO
200,000
barrels of oil per day and
150 MILLIONstandard cubic feet of gas per day
4 MILLION10% increase
in Nigeria’s oil production
capacity when Bonga
began producing in 2005
of Bonga’s core
offshore staff are
Nigerian
man hours of work,
without time lost to
injury during Bonga
North West project
90%

2. In the past decade, industry-wide production from deep water fields has
added more than 800,000 barrels per day to Nigeria’s total oil output,
which currently stands at around 2 million barrels per day. The Nigerian
government has set ambitious targets to increase total oil production in
the next few years and has set its sights on a big increase in deep-water
exploration and production in particular.
BONGA
The Bonga field, which started production in 2005, was Nigeria’s first
oil and gas project in more than 1,000 metres of water. SNEPCo used
one of the world’s largest floating production, storage and offloading
(FPSO) vessels for the project. Three hundred metres long and the height
of a 12-storey building, The FPSO’s deck spans an area as large as three
football fields.
The Bonga FPSO has the capacity to produce 200,000 barrels of oil and
150 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. It increased Nigeria’s oil
production capacity by 10% when it began producing in 2005.
The vessel’s capacity has been upgraded in recent years, enabling
SNEPCo to unlock new energy resources. This included the start of
production at the nearby Bonga North West field in August 2014, which
is expected to contribute 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day at peak
production, helping to maintain the facility’s overall output. A third phase
of the Bonga Main development was also approved in 2014.
GLOBAL EXPERTISE, LOCAL WORKFORCE
With thousands of people working on deep water projects across the
world, Shell works to ensure that the knowledge gained from one project
is transferred to others. By bringing in outside experience, SNEPCo helped
create the first generation of Nigerian deep water oil and gas engineers.
Today, 90% of Bonga’s core offshore staff are Nigerian.
Bonga also stimulated the growth of support industries vital to deep water
projects. These benefit the wider economy by boosting demand for a range
of goods and services including boats, materials, floating hotels, helicopters
and manpower, creating jobs and providing a range of training and
maintenance services to the industry locally.
The Bonga North West project reinforced Shell’s commitment to developing
the offshore frontier with a strong focus on safety and Nigerian content.
The project was completed with over 4 million man hours of work and
no time lost to injury. It was the first project to be executed under the
Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act and supported
the establishment of a local fabrication yard for subsea components, a pipe
coating plant and a welding laboratory.
SNEPCo HELPED CREATE THE FIRST GENERATION OF
NIGERIAN DEEP WATER OIL AND GAS ENGINEERS
SHELL IN NIGERIA UNLOCKING NIGERIA’S POTENTIAL IN DEEP WATER
Published by Shell International BV in April 2015. More information on the Shell Companies in Nigeria can be found at www.shellnigeria.com