Seplat Sees Oil Drilling Ramp Up as Nigerian Security Stabilizes

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Seplat Petroleum Development Co. expects to ramp up drilling operations in Nigeria next year after oil output recovered from militant attacks, according to Chief Executive Officer Austin Avuru.

Production returned to a normal rate of around 70,000 barrels per day in 2017 as the company has been “catching our breath,” Avuru said Monday in an interview on the side-lines of the Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town. “We should now start ramping up operations in 2018.”

Seplat, listed in London and Lagos in 2014, developed an alternative route for shipping crude via the Warri refinery jetty after being hit last year by increased attacks by rebels in the Niger Delta. With output rebounding as security issues have eased, Avuru said the company has a range of drilling scenarios as it gets back into “expansion mode.”

“You have to keep this business profitable at $45 a barrel,” he said.

Seplat will also focus on increasing gas supplies to Nigeria’s power industry by as much as 20 percent from current levels of 300 million standard cubic feet a day. “We’re upbeat on gas,” Avuru said.

Source: Bloomberg Business News