As an indication that the nation’s crude oil deposits may not last forever, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has stated that Nigeria’s oil reserves has depleted to 35 billion barrels.
A director of DPR, Mr. George Osahon, stated this on the sidelines of the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) conference in Abuja, while adding that the Niger Delta region was finally showing signs of maturity.
“Particularly, what we now have in our reserves is 35 billion barrels. Though, the Niger Delta region is finally showing signs of maturity, we should be mindful that our reserve is beginning to drop and I think everybody must be worried about this, he lamented,”
According to Osahon, the country needs to boost exploration to augment the dwindling reserves. “Oil reserves are dropping so is our output dropping as well.
What are we supposed to do is to correct this through aggressive exploration activities.
We started with 2D seismic, now we are at the 3D seismic. Already, 1,300 exploration wells have been drilled so far as we need to do more in this regard to have more reserves. We have reached the plateau of production in the Niger Delta and we are already going down.
A lot of money has to be spent to increase our reserves at the old fields, especially with exploration activities in the Chad basin,’’ he argued.
The DPR boss said for the fact that the country has not found anything in the Chad basin as of today does not mean that oil was not in the basin, saying that he remains optimistic about this because it would help boost the country’s reserve.
To grow the country’s reserve base, Osahon said more seismic data coverage and drilling of exploration wells remained a crucial factor alongside enhanced recovery methods, utilization of non-staddled reservoirs, bitumen exploration and exploitation among others.
In realization of a robust reserve target, he said the country has come up with strategies to boost its reserves, which he said, would be made known in due course.
The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) had late last year, said that the country has the capacity to meet the 40 billion barrels oil reserves as projected by the Federal Government.
But Osahon who is also the President of the association, said this while briefing newsmen on the association’s 31st Annual International Conference held in November last year in Lagos, hinted that the Federal Government had targeted 40 billion barrels reserves and four million barrels per day production by the year 2020. According to him, the Nigerian oil and gas industry is currently experiencing declining reserves owing to reduced exploration, a situation that has caused much concern. He said that successful exploration and development of new oil fields would require the use of novel integrated technologies, stressing that government was committed in meeting the 40 billion barrel oil reserve target, but decried the rate of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the country.
He said as a country, it was in the best interest of the government to increase production.
“It is for all of us as stakeholders to work together, minimize the distraction and face the business of boosting the reserves production to 40 billion barrels.”
Osahon said that exploration successes in other African countries had put pressure on Nigeria as a competing destination for oil and gas investments.
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