Nigeria’s crude oil reserve would be totally depleted in the next 37 years precisely by 2048 unless its government develops aggressive policies of hydrocarbon reserves replacement, according to geologists and other stakeholders in the oil-rich nation.
The Vanguard news publication reports November 30, 2011 that stakeholders are currently worried that with a production output of 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, Nigeria currently depletes about 1 billion barrels of crude oil annually from its 37.2 billion barrels of hydrocarbon reserves.
Stakeholders made this known at the opening of the 29th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists in Lagos.
Mr. Guy Maurice, Managing Director of Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria who clearly made the position, according to the Vanguard news said policies must be put in place for industry to gain a lot of time in the contracting cycle, especially by drastically shortening and reducing the time to access rigs for exploration in Nigerian waters adding “the country should make reserves replacement a priority”.
“If we take a critical look at perspectives for growing reserves in the next decade, the answer is exploration, exploration and more explorations to run parallel to development projects, which are also becoming more and more expensive to execute, due to slippages in complex contractual environment, couple with security challenges,” the publication quoted Guy Maurice as saying.
By Ekow Quandzie