UGO AMADI
Oando Plc has said Nigeria must continue to increase the country’s production in a safe and sustainable way.
The Managing Director, Oando Energy Resources, Ainojie ‘Alex’ Irune spoke at the eight Nigeria International Energy Summit (NILES), with the theme “Bridging Continents, Connecting Investors Worldwide with Africa’s Energy Potential”, in Abuja.
He said one of the fundamental things that is seen post-divestment is sometimes things need to get really bad for everyone to get serious about the problem.
“As a country, when we hit the lows of a million barrels, 700 was what I had, but a million is what we say pretty much was our lowest point, I think at that point everyone realised we were on our way to bankruptcy as a country.
“And if we didn’t do something about it, then we would certainly not be able to tell a history, that represents some of the efforts brought to bear,” he said.
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Irune said this resonated with not just the regulator, but the International Oil Companies (IOCs), local indigenous companies, all the parties involved adding for the first time there is a true alignment in purpose.
“Now of course we’re not getting everything right and there’s still a journey to walk on that piece, but what I see in the singular thing is that we’re all aligned in the fact that,” he said.
He said the idea that “our crude or gas or any of our commodities will not make it to sell point is sacrilegious in the highest regard, in the sense that it shouldn’t be the case”.
“So you see the security forces, IOCs, regulators, local companies, building the capacity to tackle these problems and we can only do it together,” Irune added.
He said as the country moves forward as independents who have acquired these companies, there’s the need to be clear on, talking about hand-holding and how the country must continue to ensure it is a collaborative future.
He said: “When I go out to look for a rig, and saying what are the things we have to do and how we should do it, when I’m thinking of security, I’m thinking the same.
“How do we do it collaboratively? When we’re thinking of terminals and infrastructure, how do we share, and for us, those are the big changes, working together, the alignment”.
What strategies are being put in place to really accelerate value creation for our tender companies, he asked.
“Anything in the subsurface is waning and you’ve got to a little bit, you’ve got to approach the reliability and facility of times in a slightly unique manner,” he said.
Irune noted for a fact a brownfield development would need to be sensible about cost adding for those molecules to get to the sell point, we need to have uptime.
He said if you take those two components alone, the cost base of the larger companies, the IOCs, just can’t carry the job.
On Oando’s approach, Irune said the company optimizes the base, which is to improve every single molecule behind pipe and get it flowing through the company’s local engagements, working with the security forces and ensuring that the company has a sustained flow
“That’s typically what impacts your average and all the other elements that we calculate numerically for production,” he said, adding that the company has a very lean approach to project execution. “And I say lean because, again, we’ve dealt with the issues of bureaucracy. We’ve seen the presidential executive orders come to address some of those issues.
“But we’re planning and engaging more. We have a very clear idea of what we’re going to do over the next five years. We’re planning for what we’re going to do over the next three years,” he stated.
According to him, as a country, “we certainly don’t have the runway not to hit those barrel targets that we’ve set ourselves. So for us, everything is relatively urgent. So the cycle time for the executions are much shorter than we’ve experienced in the past,” he said.
He said the host communities play a big part in the ability to deliver any amazing. Irune said that engagement has to be robust, it has to be true, and it has to be focused on improving the current state to a future that we can paint and deliver to the world.
For Oando, that is very important because in some of its other marginal field assets, it’s been able to achieve that, Irune said. So taking that over and replicating that on a much larger scale is our goal, Irune added.
“The time has started. I think the industry’s clock has just been reset. We truly hold the future of this country in our hands, the future of any forms of divestment and truly prosperity for Nigerians.
“We have the impetus, we have the alignment, we have the country and we have the president that’s interested in driving this right from the top,” he said.
