Sequel to the decline in the nation’s crude oil production, the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) says it has commenced moves to showcase potentials in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry with the view to attract fresh investments to close the industry’s underproduction gap.
The Association said the country is under producing to the tune of at least 500,000 barrels per day, which is equivalent to $15 billion and hundreds of trillions of naira in excess of the national budget per year.
This is part of the strategy it aims to adopt during the upcoming Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, the United States of America.
Speaking with the Media in Lagos, the Chairman, PETAN, Wole Ogunsanya, who expressed PETAN’s resolve in this regard, said the vision and intention of PETAN was to support the authorities to ensure that all the  values existing in the oil industry stay in Nigeria.
He opined that if Nigeria could retain between 60 to 70 per cent of the oil and gas value chain in the country, the nation stood a better chance of emerging as top 20  economy in the world.
Ogunsanya expressed concerns that Nigeria is currently losing a lot due to its inability to produce up to its oil production capacity, adding that such loses would not have been if there was full in-country retention of values and beneficiation across all the chains of the industry.
In his words, “essentially, if Nigerian organisations are involved in taking that oil out, taking it to a refinery owned by Nigerians and refining it, if we have petrochemicals refining the gas and the product, we are taking that gas, we are processing it in power plants, we run pipelines to connect all those power plants, this country will be top 20 economy in the world.
“And we believe very strongly that there is no better prescription of Nigeria’s economic solution more than that.
“So, what we have, as we see today, the production is down by at least 500,000 barrels. That 500,000 barrels equates to $15 billion. If you do the maths at today’s rate, you are talking of hundreds of trillions of naira, more than what the national budget per year is”.
In order to retain those value in-country at every stage of oil and gas process, Ogunsanya said a lot of gaps needed to be filled through goverment policy initiatives and collaboration with industry stakeholders.
Reiterating PETAN’s commitment to support the retention of those values, he acknowledged the presidency’s high interest in increasing production, noting that the presidency had given the directives and had formulated a lot of gazettes, stating that PETAN aligned with those initiatives.
Ogunsanya further said, “Our intention is to support this government, to support this country to increase production of oil and gas. I presented this vision to the whole house of PETAN exactly a week ago and the vision is very clear. PETAN wants to support Nigeria through innovative means to increase product of oil and gas in this country.
“That is the mandate that the President has given. PETAN is going to come with very innovative ideas on how this is going to be achieved and even low cost approach that is being used in other countries. If you go to Indonesia where some of us have relationships, this is what they are doing. They are looking inwards on how to maximise returns from the resources that they have”.
Owing to the technical know-how of the members and the unique position of the association, the PETAN boss said they were working with the government to create value for the country.