Uche Usim, Abuja
The Federal Government in collaboration with energy professionals and consultants has evolved an acreage management policy in its efforts to achieve new crude oil production targets set by the Buhari administration.
The national acreage management policy seeks to make efficient gains and returns to national coffers from the oil mineral leases.
The acreage management policy will require a new round of bidding for Oil (blocks) Minerals Licensing (OML) as part of the measures to increase productivity from the nation’s oil and gas sector. President Muhammadu Buhari through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, had earlier in August set a target of 3 million barrels per day crude production with 5 per cent cost reduction.
Before the new target, Nigeria’s daily crude production hovers around 2 million and 2.2 million barrels per day with more than 5 per cent loss due to inefficient method of measuring the crude oil mine.
The energy professionals who participated in the National Acreage Management Policy Workshop were petroleum engineers, geologists, economists, administrators and lawyers drawn from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).