Nigeria’s Oil Reserves Shrink by 50 Million Barrels in 14 Years-NUPRC

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has said the country’s oil reserves decreased from 38 billion barrels in 2008 to 37.50 billion barrels in 2023-a loss of 50 million barrels in 14 years.

In a recent report, the commission attributed the decline to a sharp decrease in exploration activities due to what it termed inadequate investment by companies involved in the exploration and production of petroleum. The NUPRC said such investments had not been forthcoming due to certain factors including the delay in passing the PIB into law by the National Assembly, the global recession of 2016, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Those challenges also led to the loss of jobs by geophysical and geological servicing companies.

The commission further noted that the exploration activities that had shortly recovered late in 2021 following the passage of the PIA and the easing of the pandemic restrictions were short-lived as international oil companies started divesting from the country.

The NUPRC advised that exploration and production companies do more to increase reserves as the rate of decline continued. The commission called for better acquisition and reprocessing of seismic data and accelerated development of such identified prospects to ensure the sector is viable for the future.

The NUPRC stressed that all these steps have become very important for the reviving of exploration, attracting investment, and confirming the country’s position in the world oil and gas market.