Nigeria's older oil assets declining by 10-12%: minister

AFP

1 August 2011

Nigeria's older oil assets declining by 10-12%: minister

ABUJA — Nigerian onshore oil reserves are in certain cases declining by between 10 to 12 percent per year and new investment will be needed to push the industry forward, the country's oil minister said Monday.

"We need to take now a very pragmatic approach towards our maturing assets," Diezani Alison-Madueke told an industry conference in the capital Abuja.

"At the moment, we have an average decline of 10 to 12 percent, which means that we are very rapidly maturing."

She did not provide specifics, but Levi Ajuonuma, a spokesman for the state oil company, later told AFP that she was referring to the decline of onshore oil assets that are 50 years or older.