The NNPC group managing director, Mr Maikanti Baru, has disclosed that the country’s crude oil and gas are fast declining.
He stated this in Abuja, when he was hosted by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists(NAPE) .
Baru also expressed the desire of the NNPC to partner with the stakeholders in the oil and Gas industry, to grow the nation’s fast depleting reserves in order to increase productivity in the petroleum sector.
According to Baru “Our national gas demand forecast to year 2020, domestic plus export, indicates a rapid growth to 15 billion Standard Cubic Feet per day (bscfd), meaning current reserves level can only sustain that production for 35 years, if we do not increase the 2bscfd gas reserves base, which requires three trillion cubic feet(tcf) to replace the production yearly.”
The NNPC director, also said that with the current drive for industrialisation risking truncation, the country’s aspiration are to increase oil production to four million barrels a day and meet gas demand of 15 billion standard cubic feet per day, bscdf, by 2020, required for industrialisation and consumption.
He lamented that, the three percent of oil wells drilled in the Niger delta basin, both onshore and in the swamps, are deeper than 15,000 feet, hence a greater number of these wells have not gone beyond the 10,000 feet as a high -pressure regime seems to be a limiting factor.
Baru further explained that the 2016 national average oil production of 1.9million barrels was low, partly due to oil infrastructure vandalism.
The need for stake holders to share data and use common available resources to reduce cost ofoperations in theater of rig-sharing and synergy in projects development, was further explained by the NNPC director.
According to Mr Baru, the NNPC are making progress in exploration efforts in the Chad Basin, the Benue trough and the other frontier basins to Shore up the reserve base of the country.
NAPE president, Mr Nosa Omorodion, said the association was ready to support NNPC in its drive to grow reservers towards increased production in allege frontier basins.