The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has
expressed its commitment to grow the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company’s,
NPDC, crude oil production to 500,000 barrels per day by 2020. The Corporation
said it would also grow NPDC’s gas production to 1500mmscf per day within the
same period.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, who
stated this in a keynote address titled: “NNPC’s Commercial Strategy and
Priorities” at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition in
Abuja, said everything was being done to achieve the target reserve growth as
well as increase national crude oil production to 3million barrels per day from
the current 2.2 million barrels per day.
He also said NNPC would sustain frontier exploration in the
inland basins to meet government’s aspiration to achieve crude oil and gas
reserves of 40 billion barrels and 200 trillion cubic feet respectively by
2020.
Dr Baru put the current oil and gas reserves at 37 billion
barrels and 192 trillion cubic feet (tcl) respectively.
“Furthermore, efforts are currently ongoing amongst
all stakeholders to reduce the level of gas flare by converting most of the
flared volumes to ensure commerciality of the gas resources”, he stated.
Speaking further on gas commercialization, Dr Baru said
efforts were on to raise between $3.6 and $4.5 billion to build the
Abuja-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline to help generate 3.2 gigawatts (GW) of
electricity for the country.
“Beyond growing gas for the power sector, there has been a
strategic positioning of the sector to support massive gas-based industrialization.
We will incubate and midwife a portfolio of critical and mutually dependent
investments (Central Processing Facilities, CPFs, Fertilizer, Petrochemical,
Free Trade Zone, FTZ, infrastructure and Ports) which will jumpstart the gas
revolution agenda. NNPC intends to develop or take equity in some of these
gas-based industries such as fertilizer and others”, he said.
Another priority for the Corporation, according to the GMD,
was the rehabilitation of the refineries, adding that his Management has
secured the approval of the Board to pursue the rehabilitation with a view to
increasing their capacity utilization to above 60 per cent.
He expressed confidence that diligent execution of the
initiatives would increase the commerciality and profitability of the
Corporation in the near term.
Meanwhile, while declaring open the 2017 edition of the
Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition at the International Conference
Centre, Abuja, on Monday, Dr Maikanti Baru, said Nigerian oil and gas industry
was on the path of recovery with crude oil price on the upswing, decline in
pipeline vandalism and drop in restiveness in the Niger Delta.
Dr Baru, who expressed delight that the NOG Conference which
could not hold last year has roared back at a time when hope was rising for the
industry, stated that there were indicators that things were beginning to
shakeup for the industry.
The first indicator, according to him, was that cases of
pipeline vandalism have reduced with a positive impact on crude oil production.
“We are having a lot of engagements with people in our core
area of operations in the Niger Delta and this is bringing a lot of hope. If we
go by the number of pipeline vandalism cases, they have dropped to an average
of 20 per cent on a monthly basis as against a similar period last year. This
is an indicator that calm is returning to the environment”, he said.
He listed other indicators to include the rise in the price
of crude oil in the international market and the renewed confidence in the
industry among the international oil companies as a result of the cash call
exit agreements which have guaranteed a steady flow of funds.
“On this note of hope, I declare the 2017 NOG Conference and
Exhibition open”, he said as he proceeded to inspect the exhibition stands of
the various companies participating at the conference.
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