NNPC targets increase of oil output to 4m litres daily

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has implored stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to focus on increasing oil production to four million barrels per day and meeting gas demand of 15bscfd by 2020 required for industrialisation consumption.

It expressed its readiness to partner them to grow the country’s fast-depleting reserves with a view to increasing productivity in the petroleum sector.

Group Managing Director (GMD) of the corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru spoke in Abuja at an interface with the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and noted that the 2016 national average oil production of 1.9 million barrels was low, partly due to oil infrastructure vandalism.

He stressed the need for stakeholders to share data and use commonly available resources to reduce cost of operations in the area of rig-sharing, vessel sharing and synergy in projects development.

He said: “Our national gas demand forecast to year 2020 (domestic plus export) indicates a rapid growth to 15bscfd, meaning current reserves level can only sustain that production for 35 years if we do not increase the 2bscfd gas reserves base which requires 3tcf to replace production yearly

“Some of our earlier drilled non-commercial holes could be turned around if we deploy requisite technologies. We need to change our perspective of risk as technology is advancing,” he said.

Earlier, the NAPE President, Mr Nosa Omorodion, said his association was ready to support NNPC in its drive to grow reserves towards increased productivity in all the frontier basins.