Nigeria’s oil reserve drops to 36.6b, gas flare hits 1.4b daily

Guardian

17 August 2011

Nigeria’s oil reserve drops to 36.6b, gas flare hits 1.4b daily

NIGERIA is till finding it difficult growing its oil and gas reserves. Against the 37 billion oil reserve inclusive of condensate, contained in the 2010 Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR) report, the Federal Government said yesterday that the nation’s oil reserve had dropped to 36.6 billion.

The country has not also fared well in its efforts to curb the waste of its gas stock as it still flares1.4 billion cubic feet of the resource daily from the current 6.8 billion cubic feet per day gas production.

The decline in oil reserve has heightened concerns that Nigeria oil wells might dry up in the next 50 years.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had earlier projected that the country’s oil reserve would hit 40 billion barrels by December this year, with increases in exploration activities, especially in the deep offshore.

At the first Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) Business Forum for 2011 in Lagos yesterday, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Goni Sheikh, said the 40 billion target could only be achieved through aggressive exploration programmes.

He said Nigeria’s crude oil production now stands at 2.6 million barrels per day (670,000 bpd from deep offshore). “This is a significant improvement from the production of 1.3 million bpd at 2008.”