Nigeria has been advised to cut down on project contracting circle as one of the ways to ramp up investments into the oil and gas sector.
The call was made during one of the plenary sessions at the 45th Nigerian Annual International Conference and Exhibition, NAICE organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE Nigeria Council in Lagos.
While speaking, the Managing Director, TotalEnergies E&P Nigeria Limited, Mike Sangster, represented by the Deputy Managing Director, Deepwater, TotalEnergies, Victor Bandele, said reducing period for which oil and gas projects were executed in the sector would go a long way in restoring investors confidence, as well as attract new and viable funding for more developmental projects.
Bandele said, “I think success is when we are extremely efficient as a country. When we are not spending five years on a project that should be executed in one year.
“By cutting down on projects circle; we are going to put things in perspective, and bring in investments rather than repelling them.”
The call came amidst energy transitioning agendas by international oil companies which had resulted in dearth of investments into the sector.
According to Bandele, Nigeria should also convert all gas flared into commercial use.
He said, “Success is when we are able to convert all gas flared into some form of use that makes sense. I work for TotalEnergies and I am proud of some steps we have taken in the past, which today is yielding something that we can point to.
“For instance, the OML 58 upgrade which is a project we embarked upon since 2012. The project is about making 300 million scf of gas pipeline available for the gas market. This means that anybody bringing gas for the domestic market near Port Harcourt can connect to it, and benefitting from it.
“Nigeria can be said to have achieved success when gas is available, and companies can connect to such pipelines, which will in turn yield profit for the country.”
He also advised the country to cut down its operating expenses on projects in the sector.
Bandele added, “Two weeks ago, we connected Ekike which is a satellite to Amena on our OML 99. This field is going to produce about 50, 000b of oil equivalent starting from now- we are ramping up.
“That kind of project is low CAPEX- it is what Nigeria needs now. It is a high profit project. The project will help to bridge the gap that we have caused by ourselves. Today, our quota is 1.8mb, and we are producing less than 1.2mb/d.
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