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Upstream - Sao Tome oil to flow 'by 2010'

By Upstream staff


Oil could flow from Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe's Joint Development Area (JDA) by 2010, a body representing country's producing oil off west Africa said today.

"Production could start in the joint area within four or five years if everything goes as planned," Carlos Gomes, executive secretary of the Gulf of Guinea Commission said, MarketWatch reported.

Gomes said Chevron, which struck oil and gas in the first well in the area earlier this year, planned to sink a second test bore next year, the news service reported.

Under the agreement covering the JDA, 60% of royalties from the area will go to Nigeria and 40% will go to the tiny island of Sao Tome and Principe.

Gomes was previously chairman of the Sao Tome-Nigeria Joint Development Authority, which manages the offshore area common to both countries.

The Gulf of Guinea Commission comprises Angola, Cameroon, the Democractic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe, which jointly produce about 4.5 million barrels of oil per day, or about 5% of global production, from the waters of Africa's western coast.


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13 October 2006 20:39 GMT | last updated: 13 October 2006 20:39 GMT