Nigeria oil reserves have dropped from 40 billion to 35 billion barrels, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said on Wednesday.
Speaking with journalists at the ongoing Oil and Gas Seminar in Abuja, a DPR Director, Mr. George Osahon linked the plummet to the country’s reduced crude oil production.
“Some oil wells in the Niger Delta have stopped production because they have attained maturity. Vandalism and other unwholesome acts in the oil distribution process in the region also account for the drop in production of crude oil”, he said.
“Oil reserves are dropping and our output is dropping too. What we are supposed to do to correct this is to continue to explore and explore and explore for more oil.
“We started with ‘2D seismic’; now we are at the ‘3D seismic’. Already, 1,300 exploration wells have been drilled so far.
“We need to do more in this regard so as to have more reserves. We have reached the plateau of production in the Niger Delta and we are already going down”.
He revealed that huge financial investments have been committed to increasing reserves from the old fields, while also saying there has been little progress with oil exploration at the Chad basin.
“Nothing has been found there, but that we have not found anything at the Chad basin as at today does not mean that oil is not in the basin”, he said.
“We are optimistic about this. We have come up with strategies to boost our reserves and in due course, we would make this known”.
