Oil Fields: NNPC Okays Indigenous Firms to Bid

• Oil Fields: NNPC Okays Indigenous Firms to Bid

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Friday urged members of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group to participate in the forthcoming bid round for about 30 marginal oil fields which would soon be flagged off by the Federal Government.

The NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, gave the charge when he received a delegation of IPPG led by its Chairman, Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, at the corporation’s headquarters in Abuja.

Baru also urged the petroleum producers to take advantage of the low crude oil price regime to develop their capacity and acquire technology.

He stated that there were lots of opportunities in the marginal fields which would soon be available and urged the IPPG to work hand-in-hand with the Department of Petroleum Resources to ensure that they met the conditions that would be required from bidders.

Baru was quoted in a statement from the corporation’s spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, as saying, “The marginal oil field lease renewal is an opportunity for your group. You will need to engage the DPR early in discussion to find out the conditions that the Federal Government is interested in. For example, the supply of gas to power plants and fertiliser plants and I think your group will be successful.”

He further tasked the IPPG members to ramp up their collective production from 10 per cent of national production to 50 per cent in the next 10 years, in order to increase the footprint of indigenous companies in the upstream sub-sector as was the case in the downstream.