To resolve the challenges hindering the effective development of divested oil and gas assets in the nation’s oil and gas industry, independent oil producers and other operators in the upstream petroleum industry should embrace increased collaboration in their operations, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has said.
The company’s Executive Vice President, Upstream, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, advised on Wednesday during a panel session in the 2024 Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES 2024) in Abuja.
Eyesan, who spoke on the theme: “Innovation, Collaboration, and Resilience: Empowering Independent Producers in the Dynamic Energy Era”, said past experiences with divestments and how the assets were operated left much to be desired as most of the operators recorded a massive drop in production rather than growth after taking over the assets.
“In the industry, if you want to measure success, there are some basic indicators to utilize, including production growth, reserves growth, and asset integrity.
“If I were to evaluate prior investment initiatives and scale the actors using these indices, I will be untrue to myself if I said everybody has done well.
“Yes, we acquired the assets, but today, we are worse off, in terms of production than we were when we did the acquisition”, the EVP lamented.
She, however, acknowledged that there were some success stories in the operations of some of the independent producers.
Some of the challenges she identified include insecurity, lack of finance, and lack of technological capacity, stressing that with collaboration among industry players, these challenges could be surmounted.
“Collaboration cannot be overemphasized. Somebody said we should be in a state of emergency, and I totally agree with that. It’s not by sitting here and talking about the challenges. I think we should have a war room where we raise the issues and set out concrete plans to resolve them, rather than wait for stakeholders individually to take them on. We need collaboration, collaboration, and collaboration”, she emphasized.
Representatives of key independent players in the sector participated in the panel session, including the Chief Executive Officer of Aradel Holdings, Adegbite Falade; Managing Director of SNEPCo, Elohor Aiboni; Managing Director of First E & P Development Company, Demola Adeyemi-Bero; and Chief Executive Officer, TotalEnergies, Matthieu Bouyer.
Others on the panel were the Chief Executive Officer, ExxonMobil Nigeria, Shane Harris; Chief Operating Officer, Oando Energy Resources, Ainojie Alex Irune; and Director, Joint Venture, Chevron Nigeria, Cosmas Iwueze.
