Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Increased oil production ups country's economy By 7.23%

The increase in oil production in Nigeria has catapulted the economy of Nigeria by 7. 23 per cent in the first quarter of 2010.


The increase in crude production was occasioned by the relative peace in the Niger Delta region where over 90 per cent of oil production takes place.


Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said that the oil production in Nigeria has risen tremendously.


Though Alison-Madueke did not give the figure for the current level of production, she said that the increase was as a result of progressive impacts of post amnesty program given to militant by the federal government in the country.


The minister who was represented by the Director, Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), Andrew Obaje disclosed this at the 2-daysTechnology Conference and Exhibition in Lagos.


Alison-Madueke maintained that the conference afforded the government and other stakeholders an avenue to deliberate on the better ways forward in addressing issues surrounding the oil and gas industry.


She said the country is blessed with huge oil and gas resources which are currently estimated at about 37.2 billion barrels reserved for oil and 183 trillion cubic feet for gas as at January 2010.


The minister however said that these valuable assets have not been fully exploited in the moist efficient and economical way to the benefit of Nigerians, adding that due to the limited technological resources available to Nigeria.


"Am delighted to be here today to share with this body of professionals the current and future technology challenges in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.


"Current Nigeria's deep offshore oil and gas resources are yet to be fully developed and exploited despite government efforts to attract international investor," he said.


The minister said the development and production of deep offshore resources is underpinned by the availability of the state-of-art technology, which she said in most cases is capital intensive that posed major challenges to Nigeria for sector.


"Our vision for the oil and gas industry is to have a sustainable growth in a manner that is profitable, safe, efficient and environmentally friendly.


"The Federal Government focus is on critical short and medium term deliverables that will create the desire impacts on the generality of Nigerians," she added.


Talking on Deep offshore Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation, the minister said that this are one of the area were Nigeria has to invest heavily in order to optmise her investment.


She said deepwater field pose great challenges to operators because of the difficult terrain, for example initiating well control and operation using electronic instead of the traditional Hydraulic control system presently being used.


Daily Independent


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