cTotal to Supply 1bn Cubic Meters of Gas to LNG
By Mike Oduniyi
Total siad it would be supplying an additional one billion cubic meters of gas a year to the Bonny LNG plant to feed its sixth train when it comes on stream in 2007.
The company also disclosed that a wholly owned subsidiary, Total Gas & Power Limited, will lift another 1.2 billion cubic metres of LNG per annum, in addition to the 0.3 bcm from trains 4 and 5 of the gas plant.
These arrangements follows the signing of the final investment decision (FID) for construction of the sixth train of the gas plant the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its partners in London recently.
Mr. Thierry Bourgeois, the Executive Director in charge of Total's joint venture assets disclosed this at the just concluded annual international conference and exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Abuja.
Bourgeois pointed out that Total's investment in gas monetisation
underlines the company's desire to expand its activities beyond oil production into a gas production paradigm.
The consolidation of our gas phase is still in progress as we plan to
converge all the gas we produce onshore and offshore into the Nigeria LNG project and help it expand into one of the biggest LNG plants in the world when trains 6 and possibly 7 and 8 are decide and implemented, he stated.
He also added the company has adopted a forward looking process of converting gas to electrical energy, adding that this is being done through its Independent Power Project (IPP) currently being prepared for implementation in cooperation with the National Electric power Authority (NEPA).
"This is a classic waste to wealth process that is coherent with
Nigeria's greenhouse gas emission abatement, environmental preservation and energy self sufficiency policies," said Bourgeois
The director said that apart from its strong involvement in gas monetisation through the Nigeria LNG and other activities in Nigeria, Total is a world-class liquefied natural gas operator with equity sales of 6.5million metric tonnes in 2003, and that Total has interests in six gas liquefaction plants worldwide.
While commending and identifying with government stated objective to eliminate gas flaring and achieve gas monetisation, Bourgeois called for the promotion of local content to domesticate parts of the emerging gas industry.
"So that its operations will be sustainable and yield the maximum benefits for Nigeria. the obvious first step is to grow the people who will operate and manage the gas industry in Nigeria," he said.
Bourgeois disclosed that Total has contributed towards the achievement of this objective through the establishment of the Institute of petroleum studies in Port Harcourt, in conjunction with the University of Port Harcourt, adding that the challenge is to partner the university with the Institute Francais du Petrole (IFP) in Paris.
"The objective of IPS is to train locally, but to international standards, most of the additional future skilled engineering manpower required for the ambitious growth and capacity building of the established oil and emerging gas industry."
He noted that while some graduates of the IPS are expected to work in the gas industry, it is envisaged that some others will become entrepreneurs and establish service companies to form the Nigerian backbone of a viable local gas industry.
Bourgeois also disclosed that Total was doing much more to improve Nigerian manpower through a talent hunt programme and overseas training through international exchange programmes to enhance future successes in exploration and production of oil and gas.
Total has a 15 per cent interest in NLNG, alongside the NNPC which has 49 per cent, Shell 25.6 per cent and Eni 10.4 per cent.
DPR Braces up For Deepwater Exploration
�Rewards 341 long-serving staff
By Mike Oduniyi and Gloria Achoyamen
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has urged its staff to brace up for the challenges that lie ahead in the advent of oil production from the deep offshore region.
The Director, DPR, Mr. Mac Ofurhie said the Nigeria government now places more emphasis on deep offshore oil and gas production, adding that the move was part of the efforts to capture more value for hydrocarbon resources.
"Nigeria had drilled 40 exploration wells in the deep offshore by the end of 2003," he said.
According to the DPR director, several billions of barrels of crude oil and trillion cubic feet (million of cubic meter) of gas have been discovered in 23 of the 40 wells.
"Although the search for hydrocarbon resources in the deep offshore is in its infancy, exploration and development of these resources have achieved phenomenal success due to the use of modern technology," Ofurhie said.
The deep offshore potentials in Nigeria had opened up the west coast for further exploration, he added.
Ofurhie who spoke at the DPR's Long Service Awards, said the with the deregulation of downstream oil sector, which allows for profitable participation by private entrepreneurs and increased multiple sources of supply of petroleum products, the DPR's role had even become more strategic.
He noted that Federal Government's approval for the department to recruit 100 new technical staff recently, was to boost its manpower requirements, especially in field operations.
A total of 341 employees of the DPR, received the awards for serving their long service in the department. Ofurhie therefore, challenged the workers to rededicate yourselves to duty, in order for us to achieve our set objectives of efficient and effective supervision of petroleum industry operations in the country.
"I would like to reiterate that we are determined to encourage and reward hard work through a fair staff evaluation process.
"I would like us to make every effort to work towards the meaningful accomplishment of tasks and targets set by our supervising officers. The yardstick for promotions, must be the attainment of set targets in the year under review.
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