[size=14pt]Explorationists flay delay in passage of PIB[/size]
By Emeka Ugwuanyi

The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) has described the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the National Assembly as an embarrassment to the country.

NAPE President, Mr Lawrence Mayowa Afe, while fielding questions from reporters at a briefing in Lagos at the weekend, said the undue delay of the PIB in the National Assembly is a big problem and embarrassment to the country noting that the bill needs to be urgently passed into law to fast track development in the oil and gas sector.

He said if the bill is not passed urgently, it would become a serious credibility problem as most planned projects in the upstream by exploration and production companies (E&P), have been on hold.

He said the quick passage of the bill would encourage inflow of investments in the petroleum industry.  “The passage of the bill will certainly move Nigeria forward and attract more investors to our country,” he said.

The NAPE chief said there was need for the Federal Government to embark on aggressive policy of hydrocarbon oil reserves replacement in the country. He said the depletion of existing reserves without replacement was not good for the country

He said Nigeria had an estimated oil reserve of about 37.2 billion barrels which could be depleted. “Nigeria currently depletes about one billion barrels of crude oil annually from its 37.2 billion barrels of hydrocarbon reserves.

“If we take a critical look at perspectives for growing reserves in the next decade, the answer is exploration, exploration and more exploration to run parallel to development projects.

“This is, however, becoming more and more expensive to execute, due to slippage in complex contractual environment, coupled with security challenges,” he said.

The NAPE president said an all encompassing and enabling environment would be required to ginger renewed exploration activities in major hydrocarbon heartlands and frontier basins.

‘This is why we commend the Federal Government initiative in granting amnesty to youths of the Niger Delta and plead that government make it all encompassing.  He noted that some of the militants who laid down arms but have not been given th benefits of amnesty, should be given that.

He said: “Amnesty should be all encompassing because it was learnt that some were left out of the programme.”
Speaking on the 2012 budget, he said government could have been more modest in its production projections. He said basing the budget on production of 2.4 million per day is an ambitious projection. Government he said, could have put it at 2.2 million barrels per day at most.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/business/energy/30294-explorationists-flay-delay-in-passage-of-pib.html