Daniel Terungwa
Amidst dwindling oil revenue occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, Nigeria produced 155,062,220 barrels of crude oil and condensate for the months of July, August and September.
According to data from the Department of Petroleum Resources, the country produced a daily average of 1,701,738, 1,704,669 and 1,648,786 for the months of July, August and September 2020, translating to a combined production of 52,753.877, 52,844,750 and 49,463,593 for the three months respectively
This was even as the regulator said Nigeria currently extracts hydrocarbon from 323 developed fields in both onshore and offshore basins.
The DPR statistics further indicated that the fields, which either contain crude oil, condensates or natural gas reservoirs, are connected to 265 production processing stations, after which the stabilised oil and gas are exported through 31 export terminals.
The report added that onshore processing infrastructures are linked to eight crude oil/condensates and NGLs export terminals through pipelines that span 5,284 km.
According to DPR, some of the delivery pipelines connected to the five onshore export terminals are utilised by both the asset operators and third-party oil producers, for transportation, storage and lifting of Crude oil blends through export or delivery to domestic refineries.
Meanwhile, DPR has disclosed that the bid round process for its 57 marginal oilfields in the country was still ongoing.
A marginal field is any field that has reserves booked and reported annually to the DPR without for a period of over 10 years.
Head, Public Affairs, DPR, Mr. Paul Osu, at the weekend in Lagos stated that the bidding process has not been completed.
“The 2020 marginal oilfield bid round process is still ongoing in line with our published timelines on DPR website and bid portal.
“Over 600 companies have applied to be prequalified for the bid rounds which began on June 1. However, the DPR had put measures in place to ensure that the awardees would be credible investors with technical and financial capability.
The objective of the 2020 marginal field bid round was to deepen the participation of indigenous companies in the upstream segment of the industry and provide opportunities for technical and financial partnerships for investors.”
According to Osu, the last time the country conducted marginal field bid rounds was in 2003 “with 16 of the fields now contributing two per cent to the national oil and gas reserves while bringing development to their host communities in the Niger Delta.”
For the 2020 oil bid round exercise, DPR had announced that a total of 57 fields located on land, swamp and shallow offshore terrains are on offer.
It added that the exercise which will be conducted electronically, will include expression of interest/registration, pre-qualification, technical and commercial bid submission and bid evaluation.
According to the DPR guidelines on the 2020 oil bid round exercise, and payment by interested bidders shall attract non-refundable chargeable fees as follows, Application fee of N2 million per field, Bid Processing Fee of N3million per field, Data prying fee of $15,000 per field, Data Leasing fee of $25,000 per field, Competent Persons Report of $50,000 and $25,000 for Fields Specific Report.
