Sahara deploys 380,000-barrel tanker to boost OML 18 capacity

Sahara Upstream has put a new 380,000-barrel tanker into service at OML 18, adding capacity to one of Nigeria’s most closely watched onshore oil blocks as the company works to tighten evacuation logistics and cut emissions tied to vessel downtime.

The tanker, MT D Adesanya, is a Medium Range vessel with capacity of more than 62,000 cubic metres of crude. It will operate as a second mother vessel at OML 18, working alongside MT D Bayero to receive crude from shuttle vessels in the field before the oil is transferred to the Floating Storage and Offloading facility, FSO Cawthorne.

The vessel is named for Debola Adesanya, who ran Sahara’s Kenya operations and helped build the company’s presence across East Africa before his death on May 1. Company executives described the naming as a deliberate choice — a working asset rather than a plaque, one that will move crude for years.

Stationed at Bonny Anchorage, MT D Adesanya is meant to solve a specific bottleneck: shuttle vessels waiting to offload. With a second mother vessel available, shuttles should turn around faster and get back to loading sooner, which Sahara says will lift throughput and reduce the kind of scheduling backups that ripple through evacuation chains.

“The deployment of MT D Adesanya reinforces our commitment to building the capacity required to support sustainable production growth,” said Tosin Etomi, chief value officer at Sahara Upstream. “By strengthening our evacuation infrastructure, we are enhancing operational reliability, improving…