Nigeria has not added more than 300,000 barrels of proven oil reserves in a little over 10 years, the latest British Petroleum statistics have revealed.
This is considered abysmal by oil and industry operators given the fact that the reserve is being depleted consistently without commensurate addition to replace the one taken out.
Lack of investment has made it impossible for the country to grow its reserve to 40 billion barrels which is its target for 2020.
According to the statistics, apart from the period between 1998 and 2008 when it recorded a phenomenal rise in crude oil reserves, which rose from 22.5 billion to 37.2 billion barrels, the country has since experienced serious depletion of her reserves with a daily average production of two million barrels per day for export.
Nigeria has the second-largest proven reserves in Africa, with an estimated 37.5 billion barrels of crude oil deposits at the end of 2017, representing 2.2 percent of the global total, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2018.
Between 2008 and 2018 there was just an increment of 300,000 barrels.
Even though government officials consistently maintain 37.5 billion barrels, a lot more people believe that the figure may not be a true situation of thing as in most cases even the figures from government agencies such as Department of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) often conflict with each other.
According to OPEC 2019 Annual Statistical Bulletin, the nation’s crude oil reserves dropped by 481 million barrels to 36.972 billion barrels in 2018.
The organisation said in the Annual Statistical Bulletin that Nigeria’s crude oil reserves stood at 37.453 billion barrels in 2017 and 2016; 37.062 billion barrels in 2015 and 37.448 billion barrels in 2014.
The number of active oil rigs in the country rose to 32 last year from 13 in 2017 and nine in 2016, but following the steep fall in global oil prices in 2014, the nation’s rig count dropped from 46 to 29, the OPEC data showed.
But Toyin Akinosho, the publisher of Africa Oil and Gas Report, said he does not believe in British Petroleum report as that may not be the true reflection of things as most oil companies in the course of drilling discovered more oil and increased their reserves.
He said many of the companies operating in the country have increased their reserves beyond what they met when they initial secured the fields but that BP report may not capture such increment.
The slump in oil prices, which started in mid-June 2014, forced many companies operating in the Nigerian oil industry to slash their capital budgets and suspend some projects, resulting in a drop in the number of rigs.
The number of active oil rigs in the country rose to 32 last year from 13 in 2017 and nine in 2016, but following the steep fall in global oil prices in 2014, the nation’s rig count dropped from 46 to 29, the OPEC data showed.
The upturn in the rig count in 2018 was mostly triggered by the rally in global crude oil prices and the suspension of militant attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta.
The number of wells completed in the nation’s oil industry, which dropped from 141 in 2014 to 116 in 2015, increased to 81 last year from 76 in 2017 and 2016, according to OPEC.
Wumi Iledare, Director, Emerald Energy Institute, University of Port Harcourt, said most oil companies in the country “are mostly depleting what they have.”
“They are not looking for new reserves; you can’t sustain the oil and gas industry unless you are investing in new reserves,” he added.
Olusola Bello
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