The Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Engr. Sarki Auwalu, has disclosed that the department generated N2.24 trillion as at August this year, representing 70 percent of its earlier N3.2 trillion revenue target.
Auwalu, who disclosed this when he led a team of DPR management on a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Bello Gusau, in Abuja , promised that the DPR management would work to meet the new N5 trillion target set for it by government.
He explained: “Last year, we exceeded our revenue target. We were given N1.5 trillion, but we were able to generate N2.7 trillion for government and this year, our revenue budget was N3.2 trillion and as of August, we had generated up to 70 per cent.
“So, it is obvious that this year, we are going to exceed the target. We are targeting N5 trillion for government, but as it is now, the N3.2 trillion as of 30 August, we had generated 70 per cent. So, with September to December, it is obvious the 30 per cent will be a walkover”, the Director assured.
According to him, based the provision in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) the DPR raised bonds in the 2005,2006 and 2007 bid rounds to generate revenue for the country.
Auwalu said that based on the revised PIA, the DPR would soon transform in to a new entity, the Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Commission (PURC), saying that “for the first time the department has a law setting it up as an autonomous arm rather being just an inspectorate unit in the NNPC Act.”
He also spoke on the capacity of DPR to calculate and get royalties and manage acreages, to give allowables, to get the country into OPEC cannot be matched by any agency in this country.
The Director further clarified that “when it comes to transportation, distribution, marketing, there are lots of other agencies established by the Act which do not conflict but complement what we do”.
In addition, he pointed out that the Economic Value and Benchmarking Unit would be aligning its operations with the new fiscal provisions and urged the PTDF to be part of the work programme scheme which will give them a full view of the programmes in the industry.
The Director said that it was time, with the recognition of new basins, including Sokoto, Bida, Upper Benue, Chad, Anambra, Dahomey and the Niger Delta basins, for Nigeria to start exporting skills to neighbouring countries discovering oil now.
Auwalu also stressed that with the national oil and gas excellence centre working with the implementation communities, “there’s a lot of untapped potential in the centre, adding that the centre has the capacity to see every reservoir presently with the latest hardware and software.
“We have 7,100 discovered reservoirs in Nigeria, but we are producing from 1,331. We have producing reservoirs, 1,700, but we are not producing from all and these include oil and gas reservoirs. We have 18 billion barrels of oil P3 reserves in P2 areas.
“We have 68 TCF of gas in P2 areas and 70 per cent of this can be produced, giving us capacity to migrate and increase our reserve base as a nation and that was after the establishment of NOGEC centre”, the Director added.
