The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation can back into the Agbami project only when Texaco applies for a development licence. Statoil has now completed an extended test programme on Ekoli-1 in permit OPL-217, which was an appraisal of the Agbami structure discovered in the adjacent block OPL-216. Texaco holds significant stakes in both these neighbouring blocks that contain Agbami reserves. Statoil has now spudded its debut well on deep-water block OPL-218.