Nestoil Group says its Pathfinder 500 rig has completed workover operations on two producing wells in Oil Mining Lease 42, marking the rig’s first productive deployment since it was acquired about eight years ago.
The work was carried out through the group’s drilling subsidiary, Scorpio Drilling International.
Nestoil said the Pathfinder 500 was to OML 42, completed the two workovers without a reported health, safety or environmental incident and was subsequently demobilized safely.
The company said the operations contributed incremental production from the asset.
The Pathfinder 500 is one of two rigs acquired by the group as part of an investment of approximately $28 million.
The second unit is the Scorpio 300.
Nestoil Chairman Ernest Obiejesi said the successful deployment was significant because the rig had remained idle for years amid doubts about whether it would ever be used productively.
He said the group acquired the rigs because reliance on hired equipment in Nigeria could be expensive and operationally uncertain.
As an investor in OML 42, Nestoil said it wanted in house drilling capacity that could undertake workovers, revive mature wells and eventually support new drilling.
The company said the successful campaign positioned it to move forward with additional in field drilling activity.
Obiejesi also highlighted the Nigerian content element of the project.
According to him, rig refurbishment, crewing and operations were carried out by Nigerian personnel without foreign technical partnership.
He said decades of training and capacity development in Nigeria’s oil industry had created a deep pool of local drilling expertise.
Nestoil said the development demonstrated the value of indigenous ownership of drilling assets at a time when Nigeria is trying to increase oil production and reduce dependence on imported services.
Through Neconde Energy, the group holds interests in OML 42, a mature Niger Delta asset formerly operated by Shell.
The company said further deployment of its rigs could support well restoration, new drilling and higher output from the field.
