The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is set to grow the nation’s oil and gas reserves, the Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, has disclosed.
Dr. Maikanti Baru made this assertion in Lagos on Tuesday while delivering a keynote address at the 34th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) with the theme ‘Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry: Tackling Our Realities’.
He noted that NNPC would continue to ring-fence exploration budgets in both Joint Venture and Production Sharing Contract arrangements to ensure there was work for all service providers in order to provide the needed impetus to grow the nation’s oil and gas reserves.
“There is no need re-inventing the wheel. We are now progressing with the use of exploratory techniques that have worked on our neighbour’s side of the Basin to achieve similar results on our side.
“This will also provide a vista for NAPE and its professionals to further analyse the concept of oil generation, expulsion and entrapment in rift basins which we now know is different from the Niger Delta Basin that we are used to.
“The NNPC will aggressively pursue domestic refining to take advantage of improved refining margin during periods of low oil prices. To address the current sub-optimal performance of the domestic refineries, a new rehabilitation strategy which includes the rehabilitation of refineries, modification of the refinery business model and governance structures that tie capital investment performance to actual refinery output are being pursued,” Dr. Baru disclosed.
In terms of security challenges, the NNPC helmsman appealed to those behind indiscriminate acts of infrastructure vandalism to put an end to the despicable acts forthwith, stressing that the destruction of critical energy infrastructure is a great threat to the economy, environment and energy security.
Conferring the highest NAPE Honorary Award on the GMD, the Prseident of the Association, Nosa Omorodion, described Dr. Baru as a thorough bred professional who has impacted the industry positively assuring of NAPE’s readiness to continue to provide professional support for the Oil and Gas Industry.
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