The Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Engr. Sarki Auwalu on Wednesday shared that the department has been able to achieve 70 percent of its N3.2 trillion (N2.24trn) revenue target for 2021.
Auwalu who shared this during a courtesy visit to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, said the mile stone was achieved at the end of August.
The Executive Secretary of PTDF, Bello Gusau is the head of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, Implementation Steering Committee.
Auwalu said the target for the department is now N5 trillion before the end of the year.
According to him, “Last year, we exceeded our revenue target. We were given N1.5 trillion, but we were able to generate N2.7 trillion for government and this year, our revenue budget was N3.2 trillion and as of August, we had generated up to 70 per cent.
So, it is obvious that this year, we are going to exceed the target”.
“We are targeting N5 trillion for government, but as it is now, the N3.2 trillion as of 30 August, we had generated 70 per cent.
So, with September to December, it is obvious the 30 per cent will be a walkover”.
He noted given the provision in the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, the DPR has triggered bonds in the 2005,2006 and 2007 bid rounds to generate revenue for the country.
He articulated the readiness of the DPR to transform in to a new body, the Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Commission, established by the PIA, saying “for the first time the department has a law setting it up as an autonomous arm rather being just an inspectorate unit in the NNPC Act.”
Auwalu maintained that DPR has no conflict in managing or regulating upstream or downstream sectors, adding that “the capacity of DPR to calculate and get royalties and manage acreages, to give allowables, to get the country into OPEC cannot be matched by any agency in this country.
“When it comes to transportation, distribution, marketing, there are lots of other agencies established by the Act which do not conflict but complement what we do”.
He noted that the Economic Value and Benchmarking Unit, is keying into the new fiscal provisions and urged the PTDF to be part of the work programme scheme which will give them a full view of the programmes in the industry.
He said that it was time for Nigeria to start exporting skills to neighbouring countries just discovering oil, especially with the recognition of seven new basins, including Sokoto Bida, Upper Benue, Chad, Anambra, Dahomey and the traditional Niger Delta basins, which PTDF has to be part of.
He stated that the leadership of the steering committee remains neutral with institutional memory and zeal to make history adding that there’s a clear-headed vision to perform.
He explained that with the national oil and gas excellence centre, working with the implementation communities, “there’s a lot of untapped potential in the centre, adding that the centre has the capacity to see every reservoir presently with the latest hardware and software.
“We have 7,100 discovered reservoirs in Nigeria, but we are producing from 1,331. We have producing reservoirs, 1,700, but we are not producing from all and these include oil and gas reservoirs. We have 18 billion barrels of oil P3 reserves in P2 areas.
“We have 68 TCF of gas in P2 areas and 70 per cent of this can be produced, giving us capacity to migrate and increase our reserve base as a nation and that was after the establishment of NOGEC centre”
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