The Group Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) Mr Mele Kyari, has announced that a licensing round for ultra-Deepwater assets will be floated next year. He also tried to allay the fears of international oil companies operating in the country over the recent amendment of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act 2004 by the Federal Government. The amended bill was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this month after its passage in the National Assembly. Political observers are of the view that the Federal Government’s planned increase in deepwater royalty would detract investors and make $15bn of currently planned Deepwater investments are economically unviable. The GMD of NNPC explained that the last changes to the Act was made in 2003 and hence the present amendment was overdue to cater to current requirements,
Addressing the 37th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorarionists in Lagos, kyari underlined the need to ramp up exploration activities in the nation’s oil and gas industry and pointed out that the ultra-Deepwater assets were completely unexplored. He also pointed out that Nigeria’s crude oil reserves had stagnated around 37 billion barrels.
