Lekoil started production at Otakikpo after it completed and commissioned the six kilometer long offshore pipeline extending between the storage tanks and the tanker offloading manifolds, reported The Telegraph. Lekoil further commissioned onshore and offshore infrastructure.

The company is expecting initial production from Otakikpo at around 5,000b/d of oil, which is scheduled to increase to 10,000b/d by the end of the second quarter of 2017.

According to Proactive Investors, the company announced that the Otakikpo operation has been signed off by regulators.

Otakikpo is located in a coastal swamp location in oil mining lease (OML) 11, next to the shoreline in the south-eastern part of the Niger Delta. It is jointly developed by Green Energy International Ltd as the operator and Lekoil as a technical and financial partner.

Lekoil’s CEO, Lekan Akinyanmi, stated: “The Otakikpo project began in a swamp location with no infrastructure and our team delivered production in under two years.”