March 16, 2013 | 12:04 am
News
By Michael Eboh

The Department of Petroleum
Resources, DPR, weekend,
revealed that Nigerians currenty
own 52 per cent of the 173 active
oil blocs, while foreign oil
companies own 48 per cent.
Speaking at the launch of the
Nigeria Oil and Gas, NOG
Intelligence, a weekly print and
online oil and gas newsletter in
Lagos, Mr. Osten Olorunshola,
Director, DPR, further disclosed
that the Federal Government is
considering undertaking another
bidding round for the country’s
marginal oil fields, while it will
revoke the licenses of some fields
awarded in 2003, next year.

Olorunshola who stated that the
bids will be conducted as soon as
it gets the go-ahead from the
Presidency also disclosed that the
federal government does not
allocate oil blocs and marginal
fields to individuals and
corporations based on region or
where they come from, adding
that it has no records of 83 per
cent Northern ownership of oil
blocs anywhere.

He said of the total of 388 oil
blocs, Nigeria has awarded 173
blocs to individuals and
corporations, with Nigerians
owning 90 blocs while foreigners
own 83 blocs, adding that 215
blocs are yet to be awarded.
Nigerians 52% account for 6%
crude oil production

He however, lamented the fact
that the 90 blocs awarded to
indigenous players only account
for six per cent of the country’s
total crude oil production while
the 83 blocs awarded to foreign oil
companies account for 94 per cent
of the country’s total crude oil
production.

He blamed this on the
lackadaisical attitude of the
Nigerian players towards the
development of the blocs, saying
majority of them have not
commenced serious production
activities on the fields since the
award.
“It appears that people just want
to own blocs and put it on their
complimentary cards. We are not
happy with that. It is absurd that
six per cent of oil production is
coming out of 90 leases.
Government decided to dig
deeper as it was not so happy
with the performance of the
indigenous oil companies. That is
the reason why government put
in place the Marginal Fields
policy,” he noted.