$5BN TRAIN-7 NLNG PROJECT REACHES 52% COMPLETION LEVEL

sector. He said investment worth about $7.6 billion was needed to ramp up the nation's oil production to its former 2.1 million barrels per day in the next two years.

Avuru, along with his fellow industry players and petroleum explorationists, also highlighted the need for the federal government and the regulators to marshal out strategies and interventions aimed at rescuing the oil and gas industry, which had been on the downward trend for many years.

They spoke yesterday in Lagos at a pre-conference workshop heralding the 41st Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), scheduled to hold November 12 -16 in Lagos.

The topic of the pre-conference workshop was, "Unlocking Nigeria's Remaining Energy Potentials to Fuel Economic Growth and Diversification: Opportunities and Challenges."

The AA Holdings' chairman, who presented the keynote address at the event, said with the projected oil demand decline after 2035, driven by energy transition, there was urgent need for Nigeria to come up with action plans that would enable it to quickly unlock and utilise its huge hydrocarbon resources still left on the ground.

He warned that if investments into exploration and production were not accelerated immediately, Nigeria and Venezuela might become the only two countries leaving their oil and gas resources untapped in the next 30 years and beyond.

Avuru stated, "At a time, when our industry should be producing 3 -4 million barrels per day, unfortunately, we are producing just about 1.3 million barrels.

"So, we will need about two years to be able to come back to 2.1 million barrels a day. We will need another two years to take production to 3 million barrels a day by 2027."

He added, "So, to arrest natural decline and add 800,000 barrels per day over two years will require 426 wells plus 320 developed. We will require $7.6 billion in well lost alone and 45 rigs on duty."

He maintained that in the next 30 years, Nigeria and the rest of the world would witness energy supply and demand reduction, adding that by then, natural gas would support a shift from coal.

In addition, Avuru projected that beyond 2035, there would be a combination of reduction in upstream investments and tightening of non-OPEC production would result in a supply tightening with reducing demand.

He said the government must efficiently manage the divestments by the IOCs as well as the transition of operatorship from the multinationals to Nigerian indigenous companies in order to optimise the resources still left in the ground.

He observed that the IOCs were divesting from Nigeria's mature assets to other provinces based on strategic business decision and not because they were being forced to leave the country.

Avuru forecasted that with the gale of divestments, TotalEnergies would be the only IOC still operating in Nigeria by December 2035.

The former Chief Executive Officer of Seplat and Platform Petroleum expressed concern over the lack of effective management and regulation of the Nigerian oil and gas industry by the government and its agencies.

He lamented the "operatorship vacuum" in the upstream sector caused by the inability of the ministers, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to midwife the takeover and optimisation of assets divested by the IOCs.

In his intervention during a panel session at the workshop, Director, Geo-Concept Technical Limited, Mr. George Osahon, stated that the poor state of the Nigerian oil and gas industry was caused by a plethora of challenges. Osahon listed the challenges to include insecurity, particularly oil theft and pipeline vandalism; and evacuation constraints, which had forced producers to resort to barging of crude owing to the unavailability of major crude oil pipelines. He also mentioned the issue of delay in licensing rounds and lack of exploration spend as well as lack of gas infrastructure to facilitate the commercialisation of gas.

To change the ugly narrative, he called for the rejigging of the National Energy Policy in line with current realities. He also suggested that the "moribund 2018 Energy Policy be cleaned out and updated with specific targets and implementation timelines".

On his part, General Manager, Gas Business, Seplat Energy, Mr. James Makinde, opined that the main problem of Nigerian oil and gas industry was not lack of policy but implementation. Makinde said lack of gas pipeline infrastructure had remained a hindrance in Nigeria's quest to accelerate gas production for domestic use and export.

He noted that even the current regulated domestic gas pricing regime was not encouraging investment in the gas space.

Expressing worry over the inter-agency rivalries in the sector, Makinde called for the streamlining of the roles of NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), saying their frequent quarrels is affecting operators' operations.

According to Makinde, "Even the presidential letters have not been able to solve the conflict between the regulators. The quarrels still persist and it impacts on our operations."