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BARELY two months after the cessation of hostilities in the Niger Delta, oil multinationals may have begun to take stock of their losses during the era of attacks on their facilities and kidnap of their workers.
A source revealed to The Guardian at the weekend that following improvement in oil production, the oil companies have started evaluating the cost implications of the destruction of oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta.
Specifically, the companies operating the joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are currently updating their data with a view to submitting their report to the NNPC, the senior partner in the venture, so as to address issues on cost and how project implementation will be pursued without affecting output.
The joint venture operators include the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPN), Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and Total Exploration and Production Company.
The Guardian's source also hinted that those companies in Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) with NNPC are equally evaluating their losses with a view to presenting them to the NNPC's National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) for consideration.
"So many oil facilities were touched during the period; some we could put back as quickly as possible, others we could not and since we are in partnership as operators of different fields, the companies are putting the affected projects together and what it will take to bring them fully on stream," the source said.
The source added: " A budget was approved by NNPC for oil and gas operations this year. We are already in the ninth month. Most part of the year was characterised by heavy attacks on oil facilities. So, we have to sit back and take a holistic view of our gains and losses and see how all can be accommodated in the approved budget."
The source noted that report from the industry indicated that Nigeria, through NLNG, could not export over 80 cargoes of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to its client in different parts of the world as a result of the shut-down of Shell's Soku gas plant towards the end of last year.
According to him, each of the consignments cost the country about $15 million revenue (about N2.2 billion), adding that Shell supply to NLNG went down by 40 per cent coupled with reduction in supply by other gas producers which ultimately brought the gas export firm to be operating at 50 per cent installed capacity.
The Guardian learnt that the NLNG exports about 40 to 50 cargoes of LNG to different parts of the world on a monthly basis.
Meanwhile, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, has said that the ongoing implementation of the presidential amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta has triggered what might be the most cheering news in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria with daily crude output in the region hitting a record high in nearly one-and-a-half year.
Barkindo, who spoke during a working visit to the Utorogu Gas Plant in Delta State, disclosed that crude oil "production level has today risen to over 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd), which is the highest in 16 months."
Also, for the first time in a long while, Nigeria crude production level has exceeded its current quota from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in over seven months, he revealed.
Similarly, gas production has risen appreciably with the SPDC-operated Utorogu Gas Plant alone now producing over 300 million standard cubic feet of gas and condensate daily, thereby hitting its target for the last quarter of this year - about three months ahead of projection.
More than 600 million cubic feet of gas is now being produced in the country, he said, while calling on all hands to be on deck to sustain the amnesty and general peace efforts in the Niger Delta.
According to him, a significant implication of this development is that it raises new hopes for the actualisation of the Federal Government's target of 6,000 megawatts (mw) of electricity by December, this year, which is expected to positively jolt the public energy supply situation in the country.
This development, Barkindo noted, was a visible reflection of the relative peace that has returned to the creeks of the Niger Delta, especially following the formal take-off of the amnesty on August 6, 2009. The Guardian Newspapers
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