The Dawes Island Field
The Dawes Island Field, which was previously designated as a field, is now operated under the Petroleum Prospecting License No. 259 (PPL 259), in accordance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021. It is located in the Eastern Niger Delta within an area formerly delineated as OML 54, operated by Chevron as part of the NNPC/Chevron Nigeria Joint Venture. OML 54 was eventually re-offered as OPL 2006 during the Nigerian Government’s 2007 Licensing Round.
The Dawes Island Field lies in predominantly swamp terrain, with a water depth of around 4m. The field is about 15km south-west of Port Harcourt, 7km west of the Onne Free Trade Zone, and 35km north of the Bonny Terminal. It is administratively located within Rivers State and covers an area of 40 km2.
Dawes Island is covered by 129 km2 of 3D seismic data, which was carried out by Chevron in 1996, as a joint survey with Shell over its contiguous acreage. Chevron estimates recoverable reserves and resources at up to 19.5m barrels, which cuts across two fault blocks (Up-thrown Block A and Down-thrown Block B). The field was discovered by the DI-1 exploration well which was a vertical well drilled by Chevron in 1979 to 10,335 ft. The exploration well encountered hydrocarbons in multiple sands between 8,500 – 9,700 ft MD/TVD but had to be abandoned due to a stuck drilling pipe.
The field was initially delineated and awarded as a field during the 2003 Field Bid Round. Following more than a decade of non-performance of the required development work on the field, Petralon’s subsidiary Petralon 54 Limited led an investment into the asset and was instrumental to development initiatives commencing with the re-entry and drilling of the Dawes Island well which led to establishing and confirming the presence of hydrocarbons in two reservoirs – the G and H sands. The re-entry/drilling campaign was carried out about 200 ft from the DI-1 well and drilled to a depth of 9,400 ft. The well was subsequently completed by Petralon 54 Limited as a dual-string producer and an Early Well Test and subsequently an Extended Well Test were carried out, following the mobilisation of surface facilities – an Early Production Facility (EPF), the accompanying storage infrastructure, the requisite Environmental, Health Safety and Security (EHSS) accoutrements and accommodation on the field. From 2014 to 2020 Petralon 54 Limited invested over $25 million on the drilling program and development initiatives on the field.
Petralon 54 Limited was notified of the award of a 100% interest in the field in 2021 by the now defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) with approval of award from His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria and Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, following its payment of the required signature bonus to the Federal Government of Nigeria. In June 2022, and in line with changes to the license holding structure enshrined in the Petroleum Industry Act for previously designated fields, Petralon 54 was granted a 100% interest in the Petroleum Prospecting License 259 (PPL 259), which covers the Dawes Island Field area.
As the new operator of the field, Petralon 54 Limited has commenced operations with a focus on restarting full production before the end of 2022 to achieve collective value for all stakeholders. To this end, Petralon 54 is working actively with its host and impacted communities to ensure production from the field is sustained with their active participation, as the youths in the communities will be engaged in gainful employment, bringing well deserved prosperity to the community. The company has also initiated a wide range of technical activities such as a first line maintenance of the well head, refurbishment/reinforcement of the field location infrastructure and the mobilization of early well test equipment’s.