Nigeria’s 2023 crude oil reserves drop by 0.22%, as gas reserves increase by 0.10%

GBENGA Komolafe, Chairman, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, has said that the country’s oil and condensate reserves as at January 1, 2023 have reduced by 0.22 percent, while gas reserves increased by 0.10% as against the reserves recorded in January 2022.

Komolafe told the delegates and participants at the Nigeria International Energy Summit, NIES, on Thursday in Abuja that from the new records, Nigeria’s oil and condensate reserves as at January 1, 2023 stand at 31.060 billion barrels for oil and 5.906 billion barrels for condensate respectively.

Similarly, the natural gas reserves now stand at 208.83 TCF, while Associate gas reserves now stand at 102.32 TCF and non associated gas reserves now stand at 106.51 TTCF.

According to him, the reduction in oil reserves is attributed to the non exploration activities in the sector and the reserves revisions arising from subsurface studies in 2022, while the slight increase in natural gas reserves is primarily attributable to the revisions arising from new wells and field development studies.

He expressed confidence in the nation’s ability to achieve a sustainable economy and attributed the successes achieved in the sector to the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, which, according to him, made it possible for the commission to continue to drive the Upstream sector performance to grow reserves through deliberate oil and gas exploration, deep drilling, prospect maturation appraisal, field studies and improved oil recovery.

He added that these efforts are beginning to manifest in the nation’s gas reserves position, while we expect similar manifestation in oil reserves in a very short time.

Komolafe concluded by assuring the Summit that Nigeria “is well situated to become a super power in the energy transition regime given its population of over 200 million people and abundant energy sources to achieve its energy mix for a sustainable economy”.