Hope has brightened for Nigeria’s quest to add to its stock of explorable crude oil deposits with the analysis on recent 3D data generated from the Chad Basin showing very positive signs
Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, gave this indication while delivering a paper titled, “Ongoing Reforms in the Oil Industry: Impact of NNPC Reforms on the Nigerian Economy.”
Kachikwu said the corporation is injecting a lot of energy into the effort to ensure success in the search, a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Ohi Alegbe, said.
“There are signs from the latest 3D seismic studies that oil may well be very close to being found now in Lake Chad after many years of trials. I think this is very key. It is key both for the geographical balancing of oil production and it is also very key for the purpose of r efinery placement in the North in terms of access to crude. I am optimistic that by the end of the year we should be able to announce something major on this,” the statement quoted the GMD to have said.
According to the NNPC boss, who is also a minister designate, in driving and developing Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, certain key areas of urgent intervention have been identified thus: Running production acreages with transparent and profitable partnerships to bridge capacity and funding gaps; encourage investment inflow into Nigeria’s oil and gas industry; engagement with local communities and driving regulation to develop the sector income – via encouragement of the fast track PIB to clarify direction and encourage long-term investment in the industry.
“He added that the NNPC is projecting the inflow of $20 billion in 2016 to enable the Corporation fund major projects.
while describing 2016 as a crucial year for the NNPC as it is expected to transit from historic loss environment to profit-making domain,, Kachikwu stated that the years ahead NNPC as the senior partner in the various Joint Venture arrangements must take leadership in fostering a healthy and symbiotic host community engagement outlook.
For him, the focus must be in what he termed, “What the communities want us to do for them and not what we want to do.”
The NNPC GMD further said that to achieve quick passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, it is crucial to isolate the fiscal regime from the current draft and move quickly to work on other pressing aspects of the proposed oil reform legislation
