Nigeria's
oil industry
AFP
LAGOS
Petroleumworld.com 01 17 06
Nigeria's oil industry, which was rocked this weekend by an attack
on an oil plant by separatist rebels, is the largest in Africa
and the eighth biggest in the world.
In the first 10 months of last year, the wells of the Niger Delta
and offshore in Gulf of Guinea pumped an average of 2,614,000
barrels per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration
(EIA).
The British oil major BP estimated production in 2004 at 2.5 million
bpd, or 3.2 percent of global output.
BP estimated Nigerian reserves at 35.3 billion barrels, or 3.0
percent of the total worldwide.
Almost all of this crude and condensate is exported, making Nigeria
the sixth-biggest oil exporter in the world and a key player in
the OPEC cartel, within which it is third-biggest producer behind
Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The west African giant's oil accounts for eight percent of OPEC's
total output and both the group's president, Edmund Daukoru, and
its general secretary, Mohammed Barkindo, are Nigerians.
Nigeria would like to increase its official production quota to
4.0 million bpd by 2010 and would raise the portion reserved for
the United States, which seeks to diversify its sources.
Nigeria's main export, Bonny Light, is a low sulphur "light
sweet crude" which is ideal for refining into petrol for
road transport and much sought after by US refineries, where it
currently accounts for 10 percent of imports.
The main US and European energy giants -- Shell, ChevronTexaco,
ExxonMobil, Total and Agip -- all have major concessions in Nigeria,
where they generally work in joint ventures with the state Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation.
In addition, several small firms from Nigeria, Asia and South
Africa have begun buying licences to prospect for oil offshore
or exploit marginal fields alongside the main production areas
of the delta and further inland.
Recent fields in the deep offshore, such as Shell's Bonga field
and its 225,000 barrels of daily production, have boosted Nigerian
output, and the country hopes to hit four million barrels per
day by 2010.
By then, energy experts predict that Nigeria and the greater Gulf
of Guinea region could be supplying 25 percent of American oil
imports.
AFP
01/16/06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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