Deepwater operations to double as oil revenue hits $180 billion

FG takes IOCs to A’Court over alleged undeclared shipments
Nigeria has made revenue exceeding $180 billion following industry players’ capital investment in excess of $65 billion in deepwater sub-sector of the oil and gas industry.

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, who disclosed this yesterday, said operations in the industry would double in the next 10 years.

Speaking on “Deepwater operations in Nigeria: The journey so far” during the panel session of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, he stated that the nation had 13 billion barrels of oil, out of which about two billion had been produced.

The bulk of the activities in the country’s deepwater are controlled by the international oil companies (IOCs) through a piece of legislation called Petroleum Sharing Contract (PSC)

There have been series of agitations by stakeholders, especially civil society organisations, for the review of the legislation, which is reportedly favours the multinationals.

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) had recently revealed that the nation lost $16 billion in 10 years to non-review of the 1993 PSC with the oil companies.

Represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Upstream of the corporation, Bello Rabiu, Baru stated that Nigeria remained an active player relative to other regions in terms of deepwater development.

The country has utilised every deepwater project as an avenue to upscale its unique human capital skills in different areas not limited to engineering design, project management, welding and diving, Baru noted.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has appealed the judgments of Justice Olateruogun J of the Federal High Court, Lagos in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/320/16 – Federal Government of Nigeria V Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited; and Suit No: FHC/L/CS/319/16 – Federal Government Of Nigeria V Brasoil Oil Services Company Nigeria.