FRI, NOV 24 2023-theGBJournal|The Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri says he has been given the go ahead to conduct a fresh marginal field bid round to offer for sale more oil and gas fields abandoned by the international oil companies (IOCs) which have been lying fallow for over a decade.
He said the bidding round will take place soon, while promising that “marginal fields would henceforth be prioritised in terms of their location to those who have modular refineries, so that they will be able to produce.
The Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, revealed this during a facility tour of Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited’s modular refinery in Ibigwe, Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State.
This will be the first in nearly three years after about 57 marginal oilfields were put up for sale in 2020 and the process effectively concluded last year, amid many of the awardees still struggling to move to site for development of their assets due largely to funding and regulatory challenges.
The Minister while commending the remarkable success story of Waltersmith, whose Management has announced plans for further expansion, said, “I can assure you that this Government will do whatever we can to support you so that you can continue to grow.”
He noted that the Federal Government was determined to act decisively “to improve domestic refining capacity,” and that feedstock from the marginal fields was required to augment existing sources of crude oil supply to functional processing plants.
According to him,
“The quickest way to fix our energy challenge in the country should be through modular refineries, while we await the total rehabilitation of the big refineries.”
The 5,000-barrel per stream day Waltersmith Petroman, which has been a stable source of diesel, kerosene, naphta, and high fuel oil to the domestic market since its commissioning in 2020, was for the Minister proof of how beneficial such smaller processing plants could be.
“People who have similar licences for modular refineries should take a cue from Waltersmith,” he declared, adding, “Other people who have marginal fields should also take a cue from Waltersmith.”
To drive his point home, Senator Lokpobiri said, “If you have a marginal field, an allocation, it is a paper given to you, it doesn’t add value to you or to Nigeria, unless you take it to the next level by making the requisite investment and then adding the value that is expected.”
“What I am seeing is that out of the numerous marginal fields that were allocated, only Waltersmith and a few of them have been successfully driven,” he stated, recalling that he had sounded a warning at the recent Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) event in Abuja that marginal field allocations without the requisite investments stand the risk of being canceled.
In an interview at the conclusion of the tour, the President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Mr. Abdulrasaq Isa, said part of the expansion plans of the company is to raise the capacity of the processing plant from the present 5,000 to 10,000 barrels per day, and later 40,000bpd, with the goal to produce two million tonnes of petroleum products per annum.
The refinery has so far supplied a total of 600 million litres of petroleum products into the Nigerian market since its commissioning in 2020.
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