The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru has explained that the ongoing reform of the NNPC is geared towards transforming corporation from an oil and gas company into an integrated energy outfit.
With the reform, NNPC as an energy outfit would now delve into power generation and transmission for cost effectiveness.
Disclosing this at the 53rd International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Mining and Geo-sciences Society (NMIGS) in Abuja, Dr. Baru said NNPC under his leadership has put machinery in motion to accelerate frontier exploration and grow crude oil reserve to 40 billion barrels from the current 37 billion, in the upstream sector.
Delivering a paper titled, “Challenges and Prospects for the Diversification of the Upstream, Downstream and Frontier Basin Exploration in the Oil and Gas Sector”, Baru said NNPC has identified opportunities in the power sector and was ready to take advantage of them to transform from being a gas supplier to the power sector, into a major player, in the sector.
Baru said the Corporation was already working on a project to generate 4, 000 Megawatts of electricity while also exploring the possibility of investing in the transmission segment of the power sector.
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The GMD further explained that the Corporation’s decision to diversify into the power sector was hinged on the need to bridge the huge energy gap in the Nigerian market.
Continuing he noted that contrary to the impression that the poor power situation in the country was caused by inadequate gas supply, the real problem was inadequate transmission capacity.
Baru revealed that there was enough gas to generate eight thousand megawatts (8, 000MW) of electricity pointing out that the transmission grid could not support such volume of power without complications.
The GMD defended the Federal Government’s plan to transform illegal refineries in the Niger Delta into legal entities for proper integration of the youth in the region.
He explained that getting the youth to form consortia to set up 1000 barrels per day modular refineries would get them off criminality and create jobs.
To the geoscientist’s and miners, the GMD challenged them on the need to deploy more sophisticated technology, so they can drill deeper than the current 13,000 to 15,000 feet in the Niger Delta to produce more oil.
His words, “We have to look deeper with intensive 3D and 4D seismic surveys over the so-called matured Niger Delta. The older, the better.”
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