Nigeria’s deepwater operation revenue hits $180bn
…10 new ones come on stream
From Olamilekan FAWAS, Houston, Texas
Nigeria’s deepwater operation has committed capital in excess of $65 billion, Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Maikanti Baru, has said.
This was even as he announced the sanctioning of new deepwater projects while about 10 are at different developmental stages
The NNPC GMD stated this in his presentation at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference which entered its second day in Houston, Texas, USA on Tuesday.
Baru explained that, from a discovered reserves perspective, deepwater Nigeria holds approximately 13 billion barrels of oil, out of which about two billion has been produced, adding that, there is a huge volume yet untapped and opportunity abounds.
Besides, the revenue generated from deepwater operations, he said the industry has committed capital in excess of $65 billion dollars, thereby creating value for all stakeholders, stressing that there are more barrels of oil to be recovered, which translates to more opportunities waiting.
The GMD who was represented by NNPC Chief Operating Officer (COO), Upstream, Mr Rabiu Bello said Nigeria remains an active player relative to other regions in terms of deepwater development.
‘‘The industry started with the deployment of latest technology, a stride it has continued to maintain. Out of 15 FPSOs in Nigeria, seven have been deployed for deepwater operations.’’
Nigeria, he said ranks only behind Angola within the African deepwater operations in terms of FPSO deployment and he expects an upward trend in activities within the deepwater Nigeria and continued deployment of leading technology.
Baru, said in terms of capacity and local content development, Nigeria has utilized each deepwater project as an avenue to upscale human capital acquiring unique skills in different areas not limited to engineering design, project management, welding and diving.
He equally added that the local content contribution or share of services in deepwater has continued to grow, improving from the sub one per cent level to an aggregate contribution of over 25 per cent and from engineering man-hours of less than 20,000 to over 1.1 million in recent Egina project, adding that with the Nigerian content, tonnage has grown by 600 per cent from the first deepwater till date.
According to him, deepwater projects benefitted the wider Nigerian economy by boosting demand for a range of goods and services including manpower supply, offshore vessels and platforms, materials, floaters, helicopters and creating jobs and providing a range of training and maintenance serices to the industry locally.
He said the gains enumerated in terms of production and reserve growth, revenue and value creation, manpower and technology development needs to be sustained, adding that sustaining the gains means all hands must be on deck.
‘‘We must leverage the expected growth in deepwater for national development. We expect that within the next 10 years that production from Nigeria deepwater would double.’’
We must therefore start, beginning now to create linkages to the local economy. The local economy must be able to deliver the growth aspirations or support adequately the demand of tomorrow.’’
Baru said NNPC would continue to support planned deepwater projects while ensuring adequate local participation, stressing that, his vision would be to see an indigenous operator in the deepwater space within the next decade.
