Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, said Nigeria is applying lessons from costly global divestment cases to safeguard its oil and gas sector, securing over $400 million in decommissioning liabilities and setting stricter rules for asset transfers.
Komolafe made the disclosure yesterday during his remarks at the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Companies Forum, held in Lagos.
Represented by the Deputy Director, Human Resources, Corporate Services & Administration, Efemona Bassey, the NUPRC chief executive spoke on the theme: “Divestments, Liabilities, and the Impact of Ongoing Reforms on Extractive Companies in Nigeria.”
This was contained in the press statement the commission’ Head, Media and Strategic Communications, Mr. Eniola Akinkuotu yesterday.
According to the statement, the NUPRC boss said the Commission had drawn lessons of divestments from lessons of the North Sea, where decommissioning is estimated at £27billion by 2032, the Gulf of Mexico costing over $9billion and in Canada’s Alberta, more than 97,000 inactive or abandoned wells now carry an estimated decommissioning and abandonment cost of between C$30 and C$70billion.
