FG reiterates commitment to growing Oil and Gas reserves

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    The Federal Government of Nigeria, FGN, has reiterated it’s commitment to growing the country’s reserve base to at least 40 million barrels of Crude oil, so also production capacity to three million barrels of Oil per day.

    The Vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo  made this known while speaking at the opening ceremony of the 38th Annual International Conference of the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE). with the theme “Accelerating Growth in Nigeria’s Hydrocarbon Reserves: Emerging Concepts, Challenges and Opportunities.’’.

    “The government is also focussed on ensuring the growth of the country’s reserve base to at least 40 million barrels of crude oil, as well as the production capacity to three million barrels of oil per day”, he said.

    The Vice-president,  who was represented by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said low prices and OPEC+ crude oil production curtailment had largely resulted to lower revenue generation for the Federal Government.

    He maintained that government was committed to growing Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves, which currently stand at 36.89 billion barrels of crude oil and 203.16 trillion cubic feet of gas.

    “In order to grow our reserves, we have proposed fiscal incentives that will attract investments in all our basins in the PIB. In addition, the fiscal provisions for gas business will be one of the most attractive in Africa”, stated the V.P.

    “Therefore, opportunities abound for geoscientists, engineers and numerous other service providers in the shortest time to come.“In order to significantly grow our hydrocarbon reserves, we need to invest immensely in research and development so as to support the industry”, he stressed.

    Speaking further, he said “we need effective synergy and collaboration between policy makers, academic institutions, professional bodies, oil and gas industry players and the research and development centres”.

    “They need to come up with innovative ideas and technology for cost-effective exploratory and drilling activities.’’

    He stated that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on crude oil prices had made it imperative to reduce the unit cost of production to 10 dollars per barrel, adding that all hands must be on deck to achieve the target.

    “We are fully committed to this mandate and confident that we will achieve the desired goal of finding more hydrocarbon deposits in the Nigerian basins notwithstanding the curtailment in production”, the V.P. stated further.

    “We have the assurance that production curtailment will soon be over as the world economy improves,’’ he added.

    Earlier in his opening remarks, the President of NAPE, Alex Tarka, noted that COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on the oil and gas industry, stressing that the conference would provide opportunities for stakeholders to deliberate on the way forward.

    Tarka said reduction in exploration and production activities had dire consequences for Nigeria due to the country’s dependence on crude oil as the mainstay of its economy.

     

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