Expert Raises Concern on Oil Price Rise

The Chairman of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Nigeria Council, Mr. Chikezie Nwosu, has warned on the dangers inherent in the rising crude oil price.

Speaking to journalists in Lagos yesterday, ahead of the upcoming SPE Nigeria Annual International Conference, Nwosu stated that the industry players expect all four aspects of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to be passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the president before the 2019 elections, adding also that they expected the ‘Seven Must Wins’ to start ‘winning’.

He said: “The oil price is at a much higher level than predicted a few years back, but we must unlearn the bad practices that led to high unit technical costs when the oil price hovered at $100 per barrel. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the Group Managing Director of NNPC are driving for unit technical costs to come down to the range of $15- $18 per barrel from the high of over $35 per barrel in the past, and the industry has already come to levels of $23 per barrel”

He stressed that creating the right environment for the oil and gas industry to thrive would be a strong enabler for realisation of the government’s diversification programme.

“Policy that enables this growth is clearly critical, but long-term stability of the business environment is also important. Policy will serve to trigger the first tranche of investments, but longer term growth in these investments will only come where Nigeria has a stable investmentvclimate. We must earn the respect and trust of local and international investments.

“The single industry regulator, which is one of the tenets of the ‘Seven Big Wins’ is captured within the Governance bill as the Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NPRC), which in principle will take over the functions of the current DPR and PPRA.”