Thirty-one Nigerian firms were on Monday awarded licences to operate 24 marginal oilfields, in a government bid to increase local participation in oil exploration and boost the nation’s proven oil reserves.
The state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said the government hoped to increase the country’s proven oil reserves to 40-billion barrels this decade, from the current level of around 30-billion.
Nigeria has a crude output capacity of just over two million barrels per day. More than 90% is produced by multinationals including Anglo-Dutch Shell and US firm ExxonMobil.
Presidential oil adviser Rilwanu Lukman said when he announced the licence awards on Monday that opening up the oil industry would create jobs and improve the technical competence of Nigerians employed in the industry.
The 31 successful companies, some of which are part-owned by the governments of Nigerian states, were selected from 142 bidders. Seventeen have been awarded exclusive operating licences. The remaining 14 have licences to joint operate the other seven fields, Lukman said.
The government offered the 24 marginal fields, located in the oil-rich southern Niger-Delta region, in 2001. The marginal fields are capable of producing less than 10 000 barrels of crude oil per day. The government took them over from oil multinationals who abandoned them because of their low reserves and the insufficient revenue they generated.
Nigeria is the sixth largest oil exporter in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The massive oil sector provides more than 95% of the impoverished west African nation’s foreign exchange earnings. – Sapa-AFP