NAPE canvasses adoption of new technology for exploration drilling

The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) has highlighted the vast oil and gas resources that remain largely unexplored in Nigeria, canvassing adoption of new technology for exploration drilling.

It also said that the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is limiting the pace of exploration drilling in the country.

“We have so much unexplored. Once we introduce new technology, the limit is that endless. We haven’t even started to look for shale oil or shale gas in Nigeria. We are still doing conventional exploration and production. So you can imagine what would happen if we then decide that in the next decade we want to go into the production of shale oil and gas. So we have a lot of potential,” Adedoja Ojelabi, president of NAPE told BusinessDay on the sidelines of the April 2014 technical meeting of the association in Lagos.

Noting that companies in Nigeria are still doing exploration drilling, she stressed the need for them to adopt new and cutting-edge technology for efficiency and effectiveness.

“Companies in Nigeria are still drilling. Exploration covers many aspects. There is exploration within recognised fields. The other kind of exploration drilling is going to new frontiers, an area where there are no existing wells,” she said.

Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, has the largest conventional reserves in Africa and in the top 10 globally for oil reserves, with significant heavy oil yet to be tapped in the Benin basin, which is one of the world’s largest heavy oil belts in the world after Canada and Venezuela.

“We have been talking about the PIB, so I don’t even want to go back to talk about it because so far nothing has changed on the PIB. So we will have to wait until things change on the PIB,” Ojelabi said.

Current exploration activities in the country are mostly focused in the deep and ultra-deep offshore with some activities in the Chad basin, located in the North East of the country, where security issues are slowing down exploration.

“Technology is our friend as oil industry people. You can’t do without technology. And the best way to invest your money is get the very latest, current and cutting-edge technology. If you can better image your sub-surface, it will help you to minimise your cost of drilling a dry hole because if you know there is no oil there, why would you spend $20 million or $100 million going to drill a well?”

Femi Asu