28 January 2013, Lagos – The first study on harmonisation of stratigraphic nomenclature of sedimentary basins of the Gulf of Guinea, to be undertaken by the African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA) would be commissioned by April of this year, the ministry of petroleum resources has said.
Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Danladi Kifasi who is Nigeria’s APPA national representative, made this disclosure during the opening ceremony of the bids for the study recently in Abuja.
He explained that the decision to conduct the study was adopted in March 2012 in Cairo, Egypt by the 29th session of the council of ministers of APPA member countries as one of the major studies included in the 8th programme of action which APPA will undertake between 2012 and 2017.
Kifasi noted that consequently, four international consulting firms, including PGS, TGS, CGG, and RPS energy have indicated their interest to undertake the study through the APPA secretariat in Brazzavile, Congo.
He however stated that Nigeria has been designated as the project lead country for the working group, which will monitor the study.
Kifasi explained at the meeting, which was convened to analysis the bids submitted by the four consultants, that the meeting come up with a report, which would be presented to the council of ministers, scheduled to meet in March this year for approval, after which the APPA secretariat is expected to sign the service contract by April, 2014.
He added that the study will be made available after the signing of a confidentiality agreement, which will provide strong penalties in the case of non-respect of its provision by the consultants.
While providing further details on the project, Kifasi said: “The first attempt at the international tender of the study was stalled due to the fact that the terms of reference for the study, as at then, did not have data interpretation while the confidentiality of data was not clearly spelt out.”
– Chineme Okafor, This Day
