Nigeria loses 2.3m bpd of oil in three months
By Sulaimon Salau
AS the country prepares for a new peaceful dispensation in the oil-producing region, facts have emerged that the development had caused the country a loss of about 2,367,518 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in the last three months.
The shut-ins, which were described as improving from 2,400,000 barrels per day in the corresponding period of 2008, were attributed to some technical challenges faced by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) in the course of operations.
The Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. Billy Agha told newsmen recently in Lagos that production deferments for the third quarter of 2009 were 634,371 bpd, 827, 517 and 893,523 bpd for June, July and August.
Agha said the figures showed that normalcy was gradually returning to the once troubled producing Niger Delta as oil production tended to be hedging upward, compared to last years.
He gave the total crude oil production for the period under review as 214.6 million barrels, at an average daily rate of 2.333 million bpd, while the monthly average production was put at 2,260,224bpd in July, 2,280,197bpd in August and 2,462,516bpd in September.
According to him, Nigeria's quota of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) now stands at 1,673,000 barrels, after effecting the OPEC production cut of 212,000 barrels.
The DPR boss, however, stated that the nation's oil reserves hits 33.41 billion barrels of oil, while condensate reserves was 5.20 billion barrels (38.61MMB). This, according to him, shows a net increase of about 480 million barrels (1.46 per cent) against January 2008 reserves.
Agha attributed this feat to an increase in Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) assets in the deep offshore areas, noting that three appraisal wells were drilled, while 40 development wells were also drilled during the period under review as against 32 wells drilled during the same period of 2008.
Towards the end of the quarter, he said the department had commenced the auditing of oil and gas reserves for all exploration and producing companies in the country, in other to validate and authenticate the reserve figures submitted to it by the companies.
He, however, lamented that no exploration well was spudded between July to September, 2009, while only 25 rigs were in operation as against 32 recorded, during the 3rd quarter of 2008.
Giving a further update on gas productions in the quarter, Agha said the nation still possess a reserve of about 185 trillion standard cubic feet, which encompasses a 97.389 trillion standard cubic feet of Associated Gas and 87.613 trillion standard cubic feet of Non-associated Gas (85tcf).
He said the department has embarked on some technical services that would ensure a more clean and conducive environment for the indigenes of the oil producing regions and Nigerian in totality.
In view of this, he explained that the industry has evolved a zero discharge regime in sensitive areas, which include onshore, swamp, near shore, and shallow offshore locations from previous era of indiscriminate discharge of oil field wastes.
He stressed that it has also establish about 20 waste mgt service providers across the Niger Delta to ensure that no oil field waste is handled by municipal waste handlers.
However, the department, he said had adopted a combination of science and sensibilities of host citizenry in the move to formulate and enforce the Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) policies.
