Production from the Etame and Avouma fields will soon be supplemented by output from a second satellite, Ebouri.

Once this field is up and running and tied back, like Avouma, to the Etame floater, the partners will turn their attention onto exploration once again.

"The accumulations are not large but are pretty economic," says SPI managing director Fay Cranmer.

However, it is developments in Nigeria that will be critical to SPI hitting its targeted output of 80,000 boepd by 2015.

The