- We’re making significant progress in inland basin exploration –Kyari
The plan by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to reenter the Chad basin for oil search has suffered a fresh setback.
The corporation has expended over $2.5 billion on the preliminary work including seismic evaluation and mobilisation of men and materials for the oil search.
The setback suffered by NNPC, investigation by New Telegraph showed at the weekend, was buoyed by the inability of the corporation to secure clearance from security agencies for its geologists and petroleum engineers to resume exploration in the basin two months after it sought their greenlight.
The NNPC, which suspended exploration and evacuated its staff from the site in 2017, had, two months ago, said that it sought a go-ahead from agencies like the Nigeria Army and Department of State Security (DSS) to re-mobilise its men and machines to site. Maintaining that the exploration on Chad basin would remain suspended until it secures the clearance, the NNPC said in a statement on June 17 that it upheld the global standard of safety and security of staff in high esteem.
Checks by this newspaper, however, showed the clearance was not forthcoming over 60 days after the NNPC requested for it.
“What this means in simple language is that no man or machine will be mobilised to site. The exploration at Chad basin remains suspended,” a senior geologist at the NNPC told this newspaper.
“It is a setback truly, but with the spate of insecurity in that axis, there is nothing anyone could do about that,” he added, calling the attention of our correspondent to a fresh attack on the convoy of he Governor of Borno state by Boko Haram terrorists.
Notwithstanding this, the corporation disclosed at the weekend that significant progress had been made in the ongoing exploration of inland basins across the country.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, stated that this was a reflection that the target of growing the nation’s reserve to 40 billion barrels by 2023 was realistic and achievable.
The NNPC, he noted, according to a statement, was revving up exploration activities in all the frontier basins to achieve the three million barrels per day crude oil production target within the shortest possible time.
Kyari stated that his management’s focus on Transparency and Accountability with Performance Excellence (TAPE) was geared towards transforming the NNPC into a global company of distinction, stressing that the corporation was the window to the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
He said the national oil company would invest more efforts and resources in search for hydrocarbons in the frontier basins and the ultradeep water basin in the Niger Delta in order to grow the nation’s reserve base.
“We promise that we are going to be transparent and accountable to all our stakeholders. We will drive this company to become a company of global excellence through excellent performance.
“This is very possible and there are strong indications that this is achievable,” Kyari asserted.
He stated that the NNPC would galvanise its partners in the direction of attaining national goals and aspirations for the economic wellbeing of the nation and its citizens.
He assured that the corporation, with the collaboration of other arms of the Federal Government, would create a favourable fiscal landscape that will encourage inflow of foreign direct investment into the nation’s oil and gas industry.
On the commercial level, he said NNPC would continue to meet its cash-call obligations to its joint venture partners on a sustainable basis to enable the international oil companies go back to exploration, maintaining that the move had already made exploration activities to blossom.
Meanwhile, a big crude vessel -VLCC – of Nigerian crude was, at the weekend, seen bound for China, marking its biggest month of buying from Africa’s top exporter in years as it ramps up its gasoline exports.
VLCC Athenian Success is bound for Lanshan after loading Akpo and Egina in the last few days.
The nearly three million barrels of Nigerian export to China in the last 30 days is the most since the summer of 2015.
China’s gasoline export in July surged to 75 per cent from a year ago, with its products reaching as far as Nigeria and Mexico.
A little over 10 Nigerian cargoes remain for export in September.
Selling prices for some Nigerian grades were heard to be roughly in line with the official selling prices, which had been marked down this month on sluggish U.S. and European demand.
SOURCE: newtelegraphng.com