|
|
Nigeria: NNPC - Offshore Big Fields Now Saviour
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
This Day (Lagos)
17 January 2008
Posted to the web 17 January 2008
Patrick Ugeh
Abuja
In spite of the activities of the Niger Delta militants and the disruption of oil exploitation and exploration activities, Nigeria's export has remained largely unaffected because of the offshore big fields.
Disclosing this at a news briefing in Abuja yesterday to formally announce the forthcoming Offshore West Africa Conference, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, said: "Offshore big fields are our saviour. With offshore oil, the Niger Delta crisis can't affect our OPEC contribution. Deep offshore is the future. A high percentage of our oil exports will come from the deep offshore."
He said new technologies were already being deployed to take drilling "deeper and deeper" into the seas that would be beyond the reach of those disrupting oil production, which had traditionally been on land and shallow water in the Gulf of Guinea.
The 2008 OWA Conference and Exhibition scheduled for January 29-31, according to him, would provide an opportunity to further improve the amount of oil gathered offshore with the recourse to the new technologies to explore deepwater and ultra deepwater areas; shallow water offshore development areas; gas development and marginal field development.
This, he stated, was a fall-out of the drive to increase the Nigerian national reserve base and production capacity to 40 billion barrels and four million barrels per day respectively by the year 2010 has led to an upbeat exploration activities and opening of other frontier areas to the search for oil and gas.
The theme of the conference is "The Gulf of Guinea: Sustaining the Momentum of World Class Resource Development" which Ajuonuma said was quite appropriate at this time because the West African subregion was currently facing the challenges of increasing its offshore activities with a view to further harnessing the potentials of the oil and gas.
Ajuonuma used the opportunity of the pre-conference news briefing to dispel rumours that there were any plans to increase fuel prices, saying the queues experienced recently at filling stations in parts of the country, including Abuja, were simply the outcome of panic buying.
He disclosed that the completion of the repairs of the Shanomi Creek pipeline that was destroyed by militant attacks would make the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company functional soon as everything was being done to achieve this aim, adding that the Port Harcourt Refinery was "working very well, extremely well despite the last attack at our jetty."
The NNPC spokesman confirmed that the explosion on the ship bringing petroleum products in Port Harcourt was "an attack" by Ateke Tom's guerillas contrary to the denial by an official who emphatically alleged that the explosion of the petroleum tanker was "an accident" which could happen anywhere.
"Our jetty was viciously attacked," Ajuonuma said.
Still on the OWA 2OO8, he said it would showcase some of the new and improved technologies that have the capabilities to facilitate the sustenance of the current tempo of oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Guinea.
|
"The mission of OWA, among others, is to provide an annual forum that addresses the technical, environmental and business challenges associated with oil and gas exploration and production offshore," he explained. "The conference provides a unique multi-country networking opportunity for attendees to share technology and address issues with experts in their respective fields and to gain an understanding of the changes that are taking place within those technologies."
He said the conference encourages the growth of local content within the industry and the development of young professionals while new comers to the industry have found OWA to be a platform to quickly gain an understanding of key deepwater technologies and issues.
"The annual Offshore West Africa and Exhibition remains the leading source of information on new technology and operating expertise for deepwater and subsea market. It is also the most significant offshore Africa deepwater technology event in the world," Ajuonuma said.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
