NAPIMS’ Marginal Success in 2014

Fri, Jan 9, 2015

By publisher

4 MIN READ

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The National Petroleum Management and Investment Services gives itself thumps up in the marginal increase in oil production recorded in 2014 which is better than it achieved in 2013

|  By Maureen Chigbo  |  Jan. 19, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT  |

DESPITE the challenges to the economy in 2014 especially in the oil and gas sector where crude oil theft and vandalisation of pipelines were rife, the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, recorded marginal increase in production. NAPIMS has maintain crude oil and condensate production at an average of 2.037mbopd, which shows a marginal increase from the 2013 average figure of 2.029mbopd

NAPIMS has also continued to explore for new opportunities to increase the country’s reserve base and daily production. Under the Production Sharing Contract, PSC, new green fields were discovered by some of our Partners like Newcross in OPL 283 while some others have already commenced production. Other projects such as Ofon Phase 2 are near completion with expected production of 40,000 bopd by Q4 of 2015.

In July 2014, Jonathan K. Okehs, group general manager, NAPIMS, in his new year message to the staff posted on its website, said the company commissioned the multi-billion dollar Escravos Gas-to-Liquid (EGTC) plant. This created over 1,500 jobs with about $4 billion projected income to the economy.

In August 2014, the multi-billion dollar Bonga North Deepwater Project dropped its first oil and has added 50,000bpd to our National Crude production. Okehs said investment decision for other deep-water projects like Egina and Erha North have been taken with expected production of 200,000bpd in the fourth quarter of 2017 and 57,000bpd of oil in first quarter of 2016, respectively.

In spite of the dire security situation in the Chad basin area, NAPIMS, through our Frontier Exploration Services, FES, continues to explore the frontier areas of Nigeria to increase oil and gas reserves.

Also, in pursuit of the federal government’s Gas to Power agenda, NAPIMS maintained gas supply of 3bscfd to the NLNG and 750-800mmscfd to the domestic market. “We also ensured the supply of gas to Independent Power Plants thus supporting stable power supply to Nigerians and reducing gas flares. The latest gas project, the Alakiri AG solution, being developed by SPDC JV is currently supplying 45mmscfd to the domestic market and will increase to over 80mmscfd by the first quarter of 2015,” he said

Okeh’s commended “the leadership of NUPENG & PENGASSAN, NAPIMS Branch, for their maturity and selfless leadership. The industrial harmony we enjoyed all through the year 2014 was commendable. Management will continue to do everything within its power to provide a favourable working environment for staff as well as ensure that we build the right competencies and capabilities to deliver on our mandate,” he said.

According to him, in view of the prevailing security situation in the country, “I cannot but urge you all to take your personal safety and security seriously. Please avoid night travels, don’t drive when you drink and be careful and cautious where you go and how you comport yourself in public.”

“As we step into the New Year, I would like to thank you all very sincerely for your unflinching support and dedication to duty all through the past year. It must be said, in all honesty, that whatever achievement recorded by NAPIMS since I came in as GGM could not have been achieved without your support, hard work and commitment to duty. Be that as it may, I appeal to you to redouble your efforts as we begin the New Year and urge you not to rest on your oars,” he said.

“At the beginning of 2014, amidst global economic uncertainties, we set ambitious and laudable targets for ourselves. However, the world economy continued to plummet, giving rise to spiral inflation which consequently resulted in high cost of running our operations. This obviously impacted adversely on Government’s take from both existing and new projects. As we were still grappling with the global economic instability, the price of crude oil dropped drastically due to the glut in the international oil market. All these, coupled with the incessant vandalism of our pipelines and the attendant crude oil theft have combined to affect our production level,” he said.

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