Nigeria targets additional 40,000bpd by Q4 2015

Nigeria targets additional 40,000bpd by Q4 2015

Despite tumbling of crude oil prices in the international market, Nigeria is targeting an additional 40,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bopd), the Nigerian National Petro­leum Corporation (NNPC) has said.

The 40,000bpd, according to the Group General Man­ager of National Petroleum Investment Management Service (NAPIMS), a subsid­iary of NNPC, Mr. Jonathan Okehs, is expected from fresh project from oil multinational, Total.

Okeh, in a new year mes­sage to members of staff ob­tained from the company’s website, equally stated that 57,000bpd is expected in 2016 and another 200,000bpd in 2017 is being expected from additional new projects.

The NAPIMS boss said despite the dire security situ­ation in the Chad Basin area, NAPIMS, through Frontier Exploration Services (FES), has continued to explore the frontier areas of Nigeria to in­crease oil and gas reserves.

He also raised optimism that the domestic gas market will record tremendous growth, as gas supply is expected to increase to over 80 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) by the first quarter of 2015. “NAPIMS has also continued to explore for new opportunities to increase our reserve base and daily produc­tion. Under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC), new green fields were discovered by some of our partners like Newcross in OPL 283 while some others have already commenced production. Oth­er projects such as Ofon Phase 2 are near completion with expected production of 40,000 bpd by Q4 of 2015.

“In July 2014, we com­missioned the multi-billion dollar Escravos Gas-to-liquid (EGTC) plant. This created over 1,500 jobs with about $4 billion projected income to the economy. In August 2014, the multi-billion dol­lar Bonga North Deepwater Project dropped its first oil and has added 50,000bpd to our national crude production,” he said.

In pursuit of the Federal Government’s gas to power agenda, Okeh said the corpo­ration has maintained gas sup­ply of three billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd) to the Nigerian Liquefied Natu­ral Gas (NLNG) and between 750 and 800mmscfd to the do­mestic market.

“We also ensured the sup­ply of gas to Independent Power Plants (IPP) thus sup­porting stable power supply to Nigerians and reducing gas flares. The latest gas project, the Alakiri AG solution, be­ing developed by SPDC joint venture is currently supplying 45mmscfd to the domestic market and will increase to over 80mmscfd by the first quarter of 2015,” he added.