Nigeria's oil reserves have reportedly recorded a sharp decline to the tonne of 961.47 barrels in four years despite Plans by the federal government to increase crude oil reserves. Punch quoted a latest data obtained from the Department of Petroleum Resources as saying the nation's oil reserves fell from a high of 32.23 billion barrels in 2012 to 31.27 billion barrels in 2016 while the condensate reserves stood at 5.47 billion barrels from 4.91 billion barrels in 2012.
The Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, in the latest Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Annual Report said that the Nigerian petroleum sector had been affected by the disruption occasioned by the 2014 price crash.
According to him “this is due mainly to the mistaken assumption that the pre-2014 bullish market could hold much longer as the world seemed to be in the threshold of post peak-oil era. Novel technology, especially on extraction of shale oil opened the fresh vistas for unconventional oil with significant destabilising effects on conventional producers like Nigeria.
“The new oil from unconventional frontiers and the rising profile of green energy are posing considerable challenges and opportunities for Nigeria. More noticeably, increased access to unconventional oil reserves in the shale sector and the lifting of the self-imposed US oil export embargo have significantly shrunk demands for Nigerian oil in the United States, a former prime destination for Bonny Light and other Nigerian crude blends.
“Nigeria like other conventional oil producers around the world is also grappling with the growing competition for market space from the renewable energy sector.”
