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For much of its existence, the upstream sector of the Nigerian oil industry was totally dominated by multinationals, which had the human and material resources required to survey oil fields and extract crude. But when the government began to encourage indigenous investors to get involved in this segment of the industry, firms like Famfa Oil rose to take advantage of the opportunities that opened up as a result. Famfa Oil was founded by Modupe and Folorunsho Alakija as Famfa Limited in 1991. It changed its name to Famfa Oil Limited in 1996, after it turned to focus on oil and gas exploration. Folorunsho Alakija who currently serves as the vice chairman of the company is widely known as one of the wealthiest women in Africa, and a philanthropist. Modupe, who is its chairman, is a senior lawyer who has been in the legal profession for over 50 years. In August 1996, the federal government awarded Famfa Oil an Oil Prospecting License (OPL 216), which allowed it to embark on oil exploration in the field that it was allotted. The field was named Agbami and is located in the deep basin of the country’s high seas. The field holds about 1 billion barrels of recoverable reserves.
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Famfa Oil brought several partners on board its project, including Petrobras and Star Deep Water (a subsidiary of Texaco). Initial drilling was completed in 1999, and a reservoir was discovered at Agbami 1 (the discovery well). More drilling took place at the appraisal well (Agbami 2) in 2000. The company began the process of acquiring an Oil Mining License (OML) that would enable it to extract oil at the fields allocated to it. It achieved this in 2004 when its Oil Prospecting License (OPL 216) was converted to an Oil Mining License (OML 217). It contracted the construction of the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO)—which is used to produce and process extracted material –to the South Korean company Daewoo. Famfa Oil began production in July 2008. The Agbami FPSO, which is situated about 75 miles off Nigeria’s coast, works to yield up to 250,000 barrels of oil per day, well over 10% of the country’s daily production capacity. Today, Famfa Oil exports substantial amounts of crude oil. Its specialities include gasoline, Brent Crude Oil, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude Oil, and natural gas.
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Besides its core operations, Famfa Oil has been involved in a number of social investment projects, including healthcare innovation programs, the construction and delivery of school buildings, and the construction and opening of primary healthcare centres in locations across Nigeria.
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