The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) on Monday formally announced a rise in Nigeria’s hydrocarbons’ reserves as of January 1, 2024, with the country’s stock of crude oil jumping by 1.087 billion barrels and its gas reserves surging by as much as 2.573 Trillion Cubit Feet (TCF).
In line with the NUPRC’s statutory declaration, Nigeria now boasts 37.5 billion crude oil reserves, while its total gas resources as of the beginning of this year, now stands at 209.26 TCF.
Making the declaration on Monday in Abuja during the event it tagged: “National Annual Petroleum Reserves Position as of 1st January 2024 and Template for Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligation Guidelines”, the Chief Executive of the NUPRC, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, explained that the reserves life index also stands at 68.01 years and 97.99 years for oil and gas respectively, Arise News reports.
A breakdown of the data showed that crude oil and condensate reserves currently stand at 31.56 billion barrels and 5.94 billion barrels respectively, to hit 37.50 billion barrels.
Also, associated gas and non-associated gas reserves stand at 102.59 TCF and 106.67 TCF respectively, resulting in total gas reserves of 209.26 TCF, according to the upstream regulator.
Only Libya with over 48 billion oil reserves tops Nigeria in Africa, while Nigeria is the clear leader in ownership of gas stock, holding over 33 per cent of the entire continent’s reserves.
Komolafe further stated that consistent with President Bola Tinubu’s policy initiatives, the NUPRC had been working towards improving the sector’s performance, enhancing the growth of the country’s oil and gas reserves and ensuring stable production.
According to him, the significance of the event was to show the capacity of the country in terms of the abundance of hydrocarbons that had been proven.
Komolafe, explained that most of the new addition to the reserves were from brownfields, especially recent production from fields owned by the last marginal fields awardees.
“Again, that is salutary to the various initiatives of the commission, and the fact that of course some of the brownfields through the marginal field awards, have started producing and contributing to our national oil and gas reserve.
“In furtherance of the provisions of Chapter 1, Part III, Section 7 (g), (i), (j), (k), (m), (q), (r) and other powers enabling me in this respect, I declare the total oil and condensate reserves of 37.50 billion barrels and total gas reserves of 209.26 TCF as the official national petroleum reserves position as of January 1, 2024,” Komolafe stated.
For almost four years, Nigeria has failed to meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota. This is despite the slashing of the allocation from over 1.7 million bpd to 1.5 million bpd this year.
The country has consistently blamed massive oil theft, outright vandalism, decreasing investment in the sector, among others, for its inability to take advantage of the God-given resources.
