•Average rig count grow to 24
Nigeria’s oil and condensate reserves fell by 0.22 per cent in January 2022 to 36.966 billion barrels in January 2023.
Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) Gbenga Komolafe stated this during the ‘Pivoting Upstream Petroleum Regulation and Investment’ session at the sixth Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja. He attributed the fall to low exploration activities.
Komolafe, however, said Nigeria’s total natural gas reserves rose to 208.83 trillion cubic feet in January 2023. He noted that the marginal increase was due to innovations, additional new wells and field development studies.
He said: “Nigeria’s oil and condensate reserves as at January 1, 2023, stands at 31.060 billion barrels, and 5.906 billion barrels of condensate, making a total of 36.966bb of oil and condensates. While the associated gas reserves is 102.32 trillion cubic feet, non-associated gas reserves is 106.51 trillion cubic feet, making a total 208.83tcf of natural gas reserves.
“The oil and condensate reserves dropped to 0.22 per cent compared to the January 1, 2022 figures. This is attributable to low exploration in the sector and sound mission arising from surface studies in year 2022.
“On the other hand, the slight increase of 0.10 per cent gas reserves over January 1, 2022 reserves position is primarily attributable to innovations of additional wells and field development studies.”
Komolafe also said the country’s average rig count increased from 10 in 2022 to 24 in 2023.
Komolafe, who recalled that increasing competition from regional peers has led to a decrease in the proportion of the overall upstream investment attracted by Nigeria, noted that the country’s investment rebound this year.
“The implication of this is that investment is gradually trickling into the Nigerian Upstream sector. Nigeria had 17 active rigs in 2019, representing one of the highest hands from the African continent. As at then, Nigeria’s average rig count dropped to 11 in 2020, seven in 2021, 10 in 2022 but recently rose to 24 in 2023,” he added.