Indigenous Firm Activates 8-year Idle Rig In OML 42, To Boost Nigeria’s Oil Production

Nestoil Group said it has reactivated a drilling rig that had been idle for about eight years and deployed it to complete workovers on two producing wells in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 42.

The company said the rig, Pathfinder 500, was mobilised to the site by its Scorpio Drilling International unit and completed the workovers without any reported Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) incidents, before being demobilised.

Nestoil said the Pathfinder 500 was one of two rigs — the other being Scorpio 300 — acquired with a combined investment of about $28 million. The company added that this was the first time Pathfinder 500 had been used since its acquisition roughly eight years earlier.

The group described the move as part of its strategy to build local drilling capacity for the redevelopment of OML 42, a legacy asset formerly operated by Shell, and to enable additional in-field drilling across the Commenting on the development, the chairman of Nestoil/Neconde Group,

Dr Ernest Azudialu Obiejesi, said the unit had been unused for eight years and that the investment in the two rigs reflected the company’s assessment of the operating environment and the cost of hiring rigs.

He said owning rigs would allow the group to carry out workovers, revive older wells and potentially drill new wells as the field matures.

Dr Obiejesi said the rig refurbishment, crewing and operation were carried out by Nigerian personnel and that the rig is operated by a Nigerian crew. He noted that local capacity developed by international oil companies had contributed to the availability of skilled drilling personnel in Nigeria.

He added that with two operating rigs, Scorpio Drilling International now joins a small group of companies in Nigeria that own rig assets.

Nestoil Group, through its subsidiary Neconde Energy, holds interests in OML 42. Scorpio Drilling International operates the Pathfinder 500 and Scorpio 300 rigs and provides drilling services within the group and to third parties in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.