FG rolls out plans to check crude oil theft and encourage investment in oil production

The Federal Government has laid out new security architecture with the aim to reduce security menace associated with the production of oil and gas and also encourage investors to invest the Niger Delta region.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Slyva, revealed this at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the existence of the Oil Producing Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)

According to the minister, A review of the security architecture has been adopted which include the deployment of local security arrangement to take care of on-the-Right-of Way and off-the-Right of Way activities, funding of the Nigerian Army and Navy facilities and the engagement of a security supervision contractor to provide line-of sight on the operations of the Army and Navy.

He said Nigeria’s upstream sector never witnessed has never witnessed this scale of destruction of our facilities with over 265 illegal refineries within the SPDC corridor alone with concertized efforts to bring them down only resulting to creating new ones.

He said in managing this ugly menace and restore confidence of our partners in this hall, the Federal Government is taking the lead on the issue of security of our oil and gas infrastructures with a wider and forceful approach on the matter with the host communities participation identified as the critical stabilizing factor for a secured environment

“We will be deploying the use of technology with the provision of armoured drone for third level oversight. It is our hope that this plans we have instituted will help restore the confidence of all our partners and production to the 2016 highs in no distant time.”

“The passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, corrects the anomaly of the past by entrenching the host communities as part owners of Oil and Gas infrastructures. It introduces a mandatory percentage of Oil and gas companies’ (OPTS/Operators) total expenditure devoted to execute sustainable development projects for the host communities. With this, communal relations between oil and gas operators and host communities are reaffirmed by both the government and oil and gas operators to the welfare of the host communities, whilst recognizing the role played by such host communities to seamless oil and gas operations in Nigeria,” he said.

On the technical side, he said the regulator, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) have identified 3,453 shut-in strings that needs to be reactivated. This will be done after the integrated industry-wide study to reactivate these shut-in wells for short, medium and long term gains to boost production and guide investment planning.

“Through the Commission (NUPRC), we will be optimizing recovery factor via the EOR/IOR for candidate wells, revisiting and evaluating lease renewals obligations to facilitate production enhancement.

We will refocus on our shallow waters production which are embedded with huge potentials for condensate production as we encourage investors to set-up condensate refineries as our stop-gap to meet Nigeria’s Premium Motor Spirit (PMS/Petrol) demand.

With the PIA 2021, realistic optimization of deep water assets have been introduced which no doubt will encourage huge investments in our deep water.”

The new law the minister stated also guarantees economic growth and attraction of investments in the sector because it addresses age-long issues around transparency, accountability, price inefficiencies, regulatory framework, ownership and control of resources, host community benefits, environmental concerns, appropriate fiscal regime, etc.

“Nigeria has committed to net zero targets by year 2060, there is therefore an urgent need to monetise our crude oil by increasing our reserves, daily production to over 3 million barrels while adding value to this resource by making our nation self-sufficient in white products as a refining hub for Africa.”