NNPC hopeful of oil discovery in Nasarawa
Nigeria will again continue trial and error in the energy sector, as President Muhammadu Buhari rated his performance high in the last eight years.

On Monday, only about 3,500 megawatts of electricity was available to the eleven distribution companies in the sector. Installed generation capacity stood at 13,509 megawatts while stranded capacity was 8,000 megawatts. Aggregate commercial and technical losses were about 40 per cent.

At a time Nigeria’s crude oil production is projected to grow above three million barrels per day, it is now at a record low while reserves stagnate at about 37 billion barrels.

Speaking at the Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja, Buhari said the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), series of gas projects and overhaul of the refining are laudable.

Represented by the Secretary to the Federation, Boss Mustapha, Buhari asked stakeholders to make recommendations to the incoming administration on how to sustain his legacy.

Buhari said: “PIA remains our biggest achievement in the energy sector. For decades, we were told that because of the various vested interests, it would be near impossible to pass the Bill. But we made it happen. What we did with the PIA, you will all agree with me, was simply revolutionary. And we did not rest on our oars with the enactment of the Act. We moved swiftly into action, scrapping the existing agencies and replacing them with New Regulators, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA). The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was immediately transformed into a limited liability, the NNPC Ltd with a new brand identity and it is on course to becoming the biggest, most capitalised and most profitable company in the whole of Africa.

“In the natural gas sector, we made a lot of progress. The agenda was the gas revolution. We pushed for the diversification of Nigeria’s economy and drive industrialization through domestic gas utilization. We officially declared Natural Gas as the transition fuel for Nigeria. We launched many initiatives to ensure that natural gas optimization and utilisation is a reality.”

According to him, giant strides were made in infrastructure, while harping on the roles that importance of the private sector in the industry.

“We ensured an attractive framework for the indigenous companies to take advantage of divestment by International Oil Companies’ (IOCs) assets. This move ensured that the indigenous companies grew their capacity tremendously and they are now accountable for about 30 percent of national oil and gas production up from just about two per cent in 2010.

“We implemented a Marginal Fields bid round and saw to the conclusion of the process which resulted in the award of Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs) to 161 successful firms with the Federal Government raking in about N200 billion as well as $7 million from the process.”

“My administration took the issue of ease of doing business very seriously and we created a conducive environment for businesses to thrive. You don’t have to take my word for it but many of the biggest businesses that came on stream in the lifetime of my administration are backing up this fact. The $5 billion NLNG Train 7 project is one such. It is one of the most ambitious construction projects in Nigeria. Upon completion, the Nigeria LNG Train 7 project will increase the NLNG Terminal production capacity by 35 per cent from the current 22 Metric Tons per annum to 30 Metric Tons per annum,” Buhari said.

The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mele Kyari, has expressed the company’s optimism that the oil discovery in the Ebenyi-A in Nasarawa State will yield positive results.

Buhari, last month, inaugurated the first oil drilling of the Ebenyi-A Exploration Well located in the Middle Benue Trough in Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

The move was in line with the ongoing efforts of the Federal Government to explore crude oil and gas in the nation’s Frontier Basins, including the Chad Basin, Dahomey Basin, Anambra Platform, the Calabar Embankment, Sokoto Basin, Bida Basin, Benue Trough as well as the Ultra-Deepwater Niger Delta.

Kyari at the Nigeria International Energy Summit said the company is already deepening exploration activities of the nation’s frontier basins using the best industry standards and technologies which is already yielding results such as the Kolmani discovery.

“We are hopeful that the recent spud-in of the Ebenyi-A in Nasarawa State will yield positive results as well,” he said.

Kyari assured that NNPC is poised to reliably deliver energy to stakeholders, through efficient utilization of hydrocarbons and other new energy sources which are abundant in the country.

“You will agree with me that sustained energy sufficiency directly enables economic growth and development as can be seen in the history of developed countries. This is why we are focused on efficiently producing energy while minimizing the effect on the environment,” he said.

Noting that oil and gas remain a significant component of the global energy mix, he said: “We are unlocking more opportunities across both the oil and gas value chain spanning from supply and infrastructure to the markets.”

According to him, NNPC is actively supporting the Federal Government towards the realisation of key initiatives such as the Decade of Gas and the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) which seeks to deepen natural gas utilisation as an alternative transportation fuel, virtual gas supply to off-pipeline grid gas customers and gas utilization as feedstock for the development of gas-based industries.

This, he said was evident in the definite actions taken to utilize Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to power vehicles, buildings and power plants.

He stressed that NNPC is also investing heavily in critical gas infrastructure such as the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline and the OB3 gas interconnector to support 5 Bscf/d of domestic gas utilization including 5 GW of power generation capacity by developing power plant projects along the AKK pipeline corridor and across the country to complement the existing ones.

“For the gas export market, the ongoing NLNG Train 7 will expand Nigeria’s LNG production capacity to about 30 million tons per annum (30 MTPA). This is in addition to the planned Nigerian Morocco and the Trans Sahara Gas Pipeline projects which will supply gas to sub-regional African countries and subsequently Europe,” he said.

Kyari assured that NNPC would continue to leverage our partnerships with the Industry, Government, Research Institutions and Academia to ensure energy security and sustainability.