Nigeria, where Indian companies are exploring possibilities of participating in exploration and production of hydrocarbons, expects its oil production to reach 2.506 million barrels per day next year.
The country foresees the hike in production following a peace initiative President Umaru Musa Yar’adua has launched in the troubled river Niger’s Delta region where the exploration and production activities are concentrated.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Group Managing Director Mohammed Barkindo told Parliamentarians yesterday that with peace prevailing, oil firms would carry out repairs on their facilities that had been vandalised and re-enter previously no-go areas.
A fight over control of resources in the Niger Delta region that has been going on between the government and militants has hampered oil production in the Nigeria over the past several years. The government recently gave the militants an amnesty that was widely embraced.
According to Barkindo, NNPC will also concentrate on the completion of domestic gas related projects that are critical to power generation in line with its earlier agreement with the federal government on meeting the challenges of the energy sector in the country.
The corporation, which was once entirely state-owned but later commercialised, has earmarked around USD 285 million for new oil projects.
