The Managing
Director of Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Mr. Nicolas
Terraz, has disclosed that the company has made over 10 billion dollars
investments
in the country in the last five years.
Mr. Terraz
made this disclosure on Thursday at the 34th Nigeria Association of Petroleum
Explorationists Annual Conference Management Session-1, with the theme:
“Upstream Business Environment in a Recession Economy – Nigerian Example” in
Lagos.
He stated that
the company had added over 2.3 billion barrels of crude to Nigeria’s production
from 1966 to 2015. “In the last five years alone, we have made approximately 10
billion dollars of investments in Nigeria.
“Through
decades of executing development projects, Total’s activities have contributed
to creating jobs and developing human capacity in Nigeria.
“Despite the
challenging operating environment, Total remains strongly committed to the
developments of its activities in the country, while working relentlessly to
adapt to the current environment.
“In September
2015, we achieved first oil from the Ofon Phase 2 Development Project, which
will increase production capacity from the Ofon field by 60,000 barrels of oil
equivalent per day.
“Development
drilling is currently on-going to reach the production plateau. Beyond the
incremental production, this project also eliminated routine flaring in Ofon
field and allowed monetization of the gas from Ofon.
“This was
recognised by the World Bank – sponsored Global Gas Flaring Reduction
Partnership, which gave an Excellence Award to our Ofon-2 Project on 9th
September 2015, for this achievement,” he said.
While noting
that the impact of low oil price is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, Mr. Terraz
said the country is mostly affected because a large part of its revenue comes
from the hydrocarbon sector.
The Total CEO
further stated that apart from low oil price, Nigeria had also experienced a
reduction in production volumes due to security issues, especially hostilities
and destruction of oil facilities by militants in the Niger Delta region.
“The current
context is challenging for both the country and the industry.
“The
government is facing revenue shortages and Oil and gas companies, on their
part, have to adapt to the present realities.”
“This context,
combined with funding challenges for the joint ventures, has resulted in the
deferral of investments and a significant reduction in development drilling.
“This
situation has also resulted in the loss of activity and jobs for contractors
providing services to the industry,” he concluded.
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