Nigeria decries oil reserves depletion to 35bn barrels

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has stated that the nation’s oil reserves have depleted to 35 billion barrels

The Director, DPR, George Osahon, disclosed this at the ongoing oil and gas conference in Abuja, adding that the Niger Delta region was finally showing signs of maturity. He ,however, revealed that they had started working on how to boost the reserves.

According to him, what the nation has  in reserves is now 35 billion barrels, adding that Niger Delta was finally showing signs of maturity as its reserves was beginning to drop. “I think everybody must be worried about this. The country needs to boost exploration to augment the dwindling reserves.

“Oil reserves are dropping, our output is dropping too. What are we supposed to do to correct this? Exploration, exploration, exploration!

“We started with 2D seismic, now we are at the 3D seismic. Already, 1,300 exploration wells have been drilled so far.

“We need to do more in this regards to have more reserves. We have reached the plateau of production in the Niger Delta and we are already going down.

“A lot of money has to be spent to increase our reserves at the old fields. For instance, exploration in the Chad basin.

“Because we have not found anything at the Chad basin as at today does not mean that oil is not in the basin. We are optimistic about this. We are sure it would help us boost our reserves.”

He also added that what we needed to do to increase our reserves was to have more seismic data coverage and drilling of exploration wells.

Niger Delta, according to Osahon, is finally showing signs of maturity as its reserves are beginning to drop and I think everybody must be worried about this.

“We have come up with strategies to boost our reserves and in due course, we would make this known.”

7 Comments on "Nigeria decries oil reserves depletion to 35bn barrels"

Makati1 on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 3:20 am 



And the beat goes on…

Northwest Resident on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 3:44 am 



A slight scent of the fear and panic that running out of oil inspires. At least Director George Osahon is being honest about it. Chances are, a lot of politicians are feeling the same fear, but just not voicing it.

rollin on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 10:32 am 



Nigeria exports about 0.8 mbpd to the US. It produces about 2 mbpd.

That is about 50 years production if those are recoverable reserves. What is the problem?

rockman on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 11:23 am 



Some details of Nigerian production:

•Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and was the world’s fourth leading exporter of LNG in 2012. Despite the relatively large volumes it produces, Nigeria’s oil production is hampered by instability and supply disruptions, while the natural gas sector is restricted by the lack of infrastructure to monetize gas that is currently flared. Latest estimate is that they are producing about 2.3 million bopd. A July report from the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative estimated Nigeria lost $10.9 billion in oil revenue to theft and sabotage from 2009 to 2011. Oil companies working in Nigeria said theft and sabotage were in part to blame for production woes in the countries.

•Crude oil production in Nigeria reached its peak of 2.44 million bbl/d in 2005, but began to decline significantly as violence from militant groups surged, forcing many companies to withdraw staff and shut in production. Oil production recovered somewhat after 2009-2010 but still remains lower than its peak because of ongoing supply disruptions.

•There are several planned oil and gas projects scheduled to come online within the next 10 years. The start-up dates for many of the deepwater oil projects have been pushed back, which has mainly been attributed to regulatory uncertainty. The regulatory uncertainty has also resulted in the decline in deepwater exploration activity since 2007.

•For the past decade, the United States imported between 9% to 11% of its crude oil from Nigeria. However, this share fell to an average of 5% in 2012 and 4% from January to August 2013. As a result, Nigeria has fallen from being the fifth largest foreign oil supplier to the United States in 2011 to eighth in 2013. This was mostly caused by the surge of Bakken oil reaching the east coast refineries. As more oil sands production reaches refineries in eastern Canada Nigeria’s exports to that region will likely decline.

•Nigeria flares the second largest amount of natural gas in the world, following Russia. Natural gas flared in Nigeria accounts for 10% of the total amount flared globally. Gas flaring in Nigeria has decreased in recent years, from 575 Bcf in 2007 to 515 Bcf in 2011. There are a number of recently developed and upcoming natural gas projects that are focused on monetizing natural gas that is flared.

•Nigeria exported 950 Bcf of LNG in 2012, accounting for more than 8% of globally traded LNG and making Nigeria the world’s fourth largest LNG exporter. Japan is the largest importer of Nigerian LNG, receiving 24% of the total in 2012. The United States did not import any natural gas from Nigeria in 2012 for the first time in more than 10 years

paulo1 on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 1:09 pm 



re:
“A lot of money has to be spent to increase our reserves at the old fields. For instance, exploration in the Chad basin.”

More to skim, more billions to misplace. At least they admit to the decline, unlike other producing countries.

Paulo

Kenz300 on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 1:30 pm 



The price of oil, coal and nuclear keeps rising…….

The price of wind, solar and second generation biofuels keeps dropping……………….

bobinget on Thu, 20th Mar 2014 4:09 pm 



The picture of a tiny village near a major flare… so bright the entire town was illuminated from glare.
What’s so sad, this village and thousands like it have no electricity. All that flare is causing so much illness among nearby residents but nothing is done to alleviate or medicate.

Currently the big public scandal concerns 12 BILLION
in missing oil money. Criminals buy up all the govt. subsidized oil products, gasoline, diesel and kerosene,
kick-back to politicians, cops and army then resell to poor people at triple mark-up.

All that stolen oil Rockman refers to winds up on world markets at lower prices encouraging more waste and corruption.

Don’t believe that 35 Billion barrels in reserve either.
If they really could get at that oil, production, exports would not be falling. It’s true several foreign oil companies have cut back or left altogether because of the worst corruption ever known in the oil bidness.

No wonder radical crazies like Boko Haram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram
are gaining popularity among Islamics who see violence as the only solution to massive corruption.

Here’s the best part… Watch for President Good Luck
to request US or Chinese military aid to fight ‘Terrorism’. Nigeria’s army only functions to collect bribes and keep those folks living with flaring heat and toxic fumes from stealing enough oil to feed too many hungry children.