The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority says the country’s oil reserves declined by 50 billion barrels over 14 years.
According to the NUPRC, oil reserves shrank from 38 billion barrels to 37.50 billion barrels between 2008 and 2023.
In a publication, the NUPRC blamed this on the tremendous decline of exploration activities due to a lack of investment by exploration and production companies.
The NUPRC maintained that oil companies’ lack of investment could be attributed to the delay in passing the Petroleum Industry Bill, among other factors, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
This, it was learned, also led to job losses by geophysical and geological servicing companies. “It has been observed that in the last 10 years, exploration activities declined tremendously due to lack of investment by the E & P (exploration and production) companies.
“Some of the reasons were largely attributed to the delay in the passage of the PIB, the 2016 global recession, and more recently, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.”
