OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Marginal fields currently account for approximately 3 percent of crude oil and condensates production in Nigeria, state-oil firm, NNPC has said in its crude oil production report for August 2020 released last weekend.
According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, marginal oil fields “produced 1.52 million barrels of crude oil and condensates (about 2.97%)” in August 2020.
The development comes on the heels of government’s effort to increase the participation of indigenous oil firms in crude oil and gas production.
Nigeria’s total oil and condensates production stood at 51.147 million barrels in August.
According to the Corporation, the 1.52 million barrels of crude oil produced in August was 14.61% lower than the 1.78 million barrels produced in the previous month of July.
The report also stated that the August production is a “decline from 3.47% recorded in July”, while the total output in August represented a marginal drop of 0.21% below the July output.
A report by SweetcrudeReports earlier in the month had revealed that over 500 applications were received by the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR for the 2020/2021 marginal fields rounds.
The bidding process featuring 57 fields located on swamp, land and shallow offshore was brought to a close on September 15, 2020.
Flagged off in June, each application was worth $115, 000, and the fields are expected to increase Nigeria’s crude/condensate output once production commences.
Nigeria earns over N50bn as income tax from oil sector in 2020
The DPR had described 2020 marginal field bidding rounds as coming at a time when Nigeria is in a “precarious economic situation”, especially with the unstable oil prices which currently drove the country’s economy into another wave of recession.
At the beginning of the bid rounds, the federal government said it was hopeful that the entire process would yield revenue of $5.7 billion, around ₦2.2 trillion.
The country is expected to still make more revenue as winners would have to pay signature bonus before licenses would be awarded.
Analysts have said some highly contested fields like Egbolom will attract about $5Million as signature bonuses.
Already, the DPR is under pressure to announce winners, as SweetcrudeReports learnt that result is likely to be released latest first quarter of 2021.
