Offshore staff

(West Africa) - The Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone has earned the sum of $271 million in signature bonuses to be paid for new oil licenses awarded to local and foreign companies.

ExxonMobil revealed plans to invest on annual basis $2 billion in oil and gas E&P in Nigeria toward achieving a production capacity of 1 MMb/d by 2010.

The oil revenue to be shared by both countries came from the award of oil blocks 2, 3, and 4 in the JDZ, located in the Gulf of Guinea.

Sinopec and Addax/ERHC Energy posting a signature bonus of $71 million for block 2.

It is expected that Sinopec will operate block 2.

Anadarko alongside the ERHC Energy/Addax Petroleum consortium is operator for block 3 after posting a signature bonus of $40 million.

Block 4 went to the Addax/ERHC Energy consortium, along with Conoil Producing, Overt Energy, Hercules Energy, and Godson Energy, for a signature bonus of $90 million.

The companies involved are expected to pay the signature bonuses within the next 30 days.