The
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday disclosed that
the federal government would soon open bids to concession 30 marginal
oil fields in the country.
The corporation stated this in a statement from its Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu in Abuja...
The
statement noted that NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru,
spoke on the marginal fields while hosting members of the Independent
Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) led by its chairman, Ademola
Adeyemi-Bero, at the NNPC Towers.
At
the meeting, Baru urged members of the IPPG to participate in the
forthcoming bid rounds for the 30 marginal oil fields. He also urged
them to take advantage of the low crude oil price regime to develop
their capacity and acquire technology in the oil industry.
Baru,
stated that there was a lot of opportunities in the marginal fields
which would soon be available, urging the IPPG to work hand-in-hand with
the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to ensure that they met the
conditions that would be required from bidders.
“The
marginal oil field lease renewal is an opportunity for your group. You
will need to engage the DPR early in discussion to find out the
conditions that the federal government is interested in. For example,
the supply of gas to power plants and fertilizer plants and I think your
group will be successful,” said Baru.
He
also tasked the IPPG members to ramp up their collective production
from 10 per cent of national production to 50 per cent in the next 10
years in order to increase the footprint of indigenous companies in the
upstream sub-sector as is the case in the downstream sector.
According
to him, the corporation was passionate about collaborating with the
indigenous producers in order to grow their capacity and participation
in the exploration and production sub-sector in line with government’s
local content policy.
NNPC,
he added, was very proud of them and was looking forward to a time when
about 90 per cent of upstream operations in the country would be
controlled by them.
Baru,
applauded members of the group for their productive community
engagement which had stemmed the incidence of pipeline sabotage along
the Trans Forcados Pipeline and enjoined them to extend similar gesture
to the communities around the other crude oil lines to help stabilize
national production.
According the statement, Adeyemi-Bero, in his earlier remarks, said the group was made up of 25 active indigenous producers.
He
noted that they were driven to support the 12 Business Focus Areas
(BUFA) of the current management of NNPC and the Seven Big Wins of the
government.
Adeyemi-Bero
lauded the government for initiating the Joint Venture cash call exit
programme, stressing that the move would bolster their activities in the
upstream sub-sector.
The
IPPG was formed a year ago with the mandate to promote and advance the
collective interest of members in a coordinated manner as a unified
advocacy platform for government policies in the upstream sub-sector of
the oil and gas industry.
No comments: