Featured, Oil & Gas
Nigerian geologist under the umbrella of Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists discuss how the nation can improve its production capacity in the oil and gas sector
| By Pita Ochai | Nov. 19, 2012 @ 01:00 GMT
THE Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists, NAPE, is set to meet the demands of oil and gas exploration in the country. In its 2012 annual conference with the theme: The Nigeria Oil and Gas, the Next Frontier, the umbrella body of geologist agreed to improve on its activities for the best returns in the industry. Et This year’s conference according to Afe Mayowa, president of NAPE, will enable his association assess the possibility of using available means in the oil and gas sector to improve the nation’s expected production capacity.
Also speaking, Andrew Yakubu, the group managing director, GMD, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, urged members of the National Association of Petroleum Exploratioists, to address the challenges in the industry. In his remarks, Yakubu said NAPE should address the new ways of replacing the depleting petroleum resources, the high cost of doing business in the industry, and the impact of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, on the future ways of doing business.
“Despite challenges being faced by the industry in recent times, it has remained vibrant with significant increase in exploration activities in the past years. There are more than seven exploration rigs that are actively engaged in different locations in the acreages. The preliminary reports from most of the exploration activities have indicated positive potentials with great promises of enhancing the reserve potentials of the country,” he said.
He assured members of NAPE that the NNPC as the industry leader will sustain the recent initiatives in the oil industry to ensure that the country maintains the tempo in the drive not only to replace our produced oil and gas but also to achieve the aspirations and targets of 40 billion barrels of oil reserve.
In furtherance of the desire to increase Nigeria’s oil reserve base, Yakubu said the NNPC would ensures that more efforts and resources are geared towards exploration activities, particularly on new frontiers and the deep and ultra-deep offshore basins. Currently, the NNPC, through its frontier exploration services, NFES, is engaged in exploration programmes in seven inland basins of Anambra, Bida, Sokoto, Chad, Benue trough, Gongola/Yola in Nigeria.
Geological reports from some of the basins indicate that potentials abound in the basins. Though security challenges have slowed down progress of work in some of these areas, the NNPC has continued to forge ahead in the quest to deliver value to stakeholders in the industry. While the NNPC wait for the security challenges to subside, the petroleum giant has continued to forge ahead with its exploration activities.
Diezani Allison- Madueke, minister of petroleum, appreciated the efforts of NAPE in organizing its 30th annual conference. To her, it is an effort to support the federal government’s transformation agenda. She urged the stakeholders in the industry to gear up towards the upcoming challenges from neighbouring African countries in the area of exploration.
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