Nigeria’s first deepwater project, Bonga fields, will be shut down for one month starting mid-February, 2017 due to maintenance upgrade, Vanguard reported. This is a drawback for Nigeria, which is yet to attain the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) allocated 2.2m b/d

Accordingly, loading of Nigeria’s Bonga crude are scheduled to average three cargoes in February, less than half the seven cargoes planned in January, Naija247 informed. Bonga normally produces around 200,000b/d of oil and 150mcf/d of gas. Fields in the areas support the country’s oil capacity by 10%.

The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) located at Bonny Island receives gas from the Bonga development from where it is exported to European and global markets as liquified natural gas (LNG).  The field located in License block OML 118 off the Nigerian coast, covers approximately 60sq.km in an average water depth of 1,000 meters. Shell Nigeria operates the field which owns 55% of the license. Other partners are ExxonMobil (20%), Nigerian AGIP (12.5%) and Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (12.5%).