Independent Petroleum Producers Urge Govt To Conclude All Pending IOC Divestments
By Abimbola Abdullah
The Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), has called on the Federal Government to conclude all pending divestment transactions by the International Oil Companies (IOC) swiftly to derive optimum value and increase crude productions.
The group, in a goodwill message at the third anniversary of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), stated that the current crude oil production of about 1.4 million barrels per day remains very low and hugely inadequate to meet our energy requirements and socio-economic goals as a nation.
The Chairman, IPPG, Abdulrazaq Isa, said it is critical that the nation’s upstream sector is urgently repositioned and for this reason, IPPG will continue to strongly advocate for steps aimed at arresting the dwindling production.
“Specifically, we reiterate our call for urgent actions aimed at unlocking incremental production growth in the short to medium term,” he stated.
The group however recommended the unblocking all hurdles to Final Investment Decisions (FID) on IOC deepwater projects.
“Enhancing security across the Niger Delta for a conducive operating environment and stemming incidences of asset vandalism and unrest.
“Upgrading and expanding industry infrastructure to enhance efficiency and reliability of product supply to both the domestic and export market,” he stated.
Represented by the Director, Frontier Oil, Alhaji Bukar, he congratulated the NUPRC, stating that the Commission had made notably strides since its establishment particularly through the diligent implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Commenting on the official launch of Project One Million Barrel of Oil Per Day (Project 1MBOPD), he said the success of the initiative would take the nation’s production to the region of 2.5 million BOPD thus putting us in a position to meet our domestic crude oil demand and export commitments.
Describing this as a step in the right direction, he said it is imperative that certain incentives and relaxation of certain positions are put in place to achieve this noble goal of Nigeria’s oil production reaching 2.5mmbpd.
He suggested the relaxation of provisions that allows more service providers to return to the country and allow upgrades for local ones under the NCDMB guidelines.
Others recommendations are: “Simplification and speed up processes for acquisition of goods and services by providing MSAs that can be used by all as the basis for activity deliveries.
“Revision FAT procedures to use certified international agencies.
“Allowance for operators to sort out AG disposal systems and give more time for implementation,”.
He said achieving this goal will require a concerted effort from all industry stakeholders- policy formulators, regulators and operators – working in unison towards achieving our shared goal of production growth and energy security.
He said IPPG stands ready to support and partner with the government and all industry stakeholders for the growth and development of our industry.
