Oil And Gas Exploration Set To Commence In North East, Coastal States – Buhari

Source: thewillnigeria.com

SAN FRANCISCO, March 15, (THEWILL) – President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday announced the readiness of his administration to extend exploration for oil and gas into new fields in the Lake Chad Basin in the North East and in the coastal states, like Lagos, where crude oil deposit has been discovered in commercial quantity.

Speaking through Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the President disclosed that his government had commenced the process of implementing carefully conceived initiatives which would see the country hitting a production target of 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.

He made this disclosure while declaring open the 6th African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition, CAPE VI, being hosted in Abuja, explaining that the measures would come in the form of reduction in production costs and increased efficiency in oil exploration so as to achieve a 30 per cent increase in daily production.

Noting that it was an unacceptable statistic for Nigeria to be responsible for 23 billion cubic meters of the 40 billion cubic meters of gas flared annually in Africa, Buhari declared his resolve to partner with the legislature to ensure the signing of the United Nations Agreement of 'Zero Routine Flaring by 2030.'

“In Nigeria, gas flaring amounts to about 23 billion cubic meters per annum in over 100 flare sites, constituting over 13 per cent of global gas flaring. Nigeria is a member of the World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction, GCFR, Partnership and with the support of our legislature, we will sign the United Nations Agreement of Zero Routine Flaring by 2030, although our national target is 2020,” he stated.

The President disclosed that his government also plans to strengthen the institutional framework on policy formulation through legislation on the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, as a prerequisite for the development of the sector and attraction of foreign investment.

He also listed the strategies to include unbundling the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, into lean, efficient and profitable components that will operate as a business venture and deploy existing manpower to areas of competences without attendant job losses, develop stronger policies on local content so as to reduce capital flight in the industry and the reduction of gas flaring through Joint Venture, JV, contracts that will expand infrastructure and deploy Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, for domestic and industrial uses.