Buhari has over delayed bidding process for oil blocks, marginal fields— Emafo
The Managing Director, Eroton E and P, Mr. Ebiaho Emafo, has expressed worries over what he described as suffering amidst plenty, saying the delays in processing oil block and marginal fields’ awards translates to seating on money than making use of money.
Business Hilights recalls that 2006, bidding rounds for oil wells and marginal fields had not been done by the Federal Government, thus leaving the money spinners fallow and redundant.
In 2016, there were high hopes that the bidding rounds will take place, but nothing has happened till now even as the same government is spending billions of dollars searching for hydrocarbons in the North.
But in an interview, Emafo said bidding rounds for oil blocks and marginal fields should be a priority for the government considering the endless experiences of yearly budget deficit and underperformance.
According to him, “It is a huge opportunity that the government could leverage. The opportunity to award blocks and marginal fields by an open competitive process is something I think the government should embark upon as a matter of urgency as these assets have remained fallow for a long time and have thus deprived the Nation of much-needed revenue and employment opportunities.”
He stressed that “It would appear that the opportunity for a bidding round on marginal fields has been in the works for some time, but I am not certain progress has been made in this direction. I am of the opinion that if done openly and transparently, which would be the route to go, I believe it would be received with great enthusiasm and participation by industry players.”
Continuing, Emafo recalled that in 2001, “We witnessed the transparency in the award of GSM licenses back in the days. No one has complained about the process regarding the award of GSM license.”
“If in the oil and gas space as well, we work towards opening up competition and getting realistic competitive bids for these assets, it would generate revenue to the government for which they can use to further infrastructure development and also bring additional crude into production. The government also stands to gain from the uplift in taxes and royalties,” Eroton E&P, Mr. Ebiaho Emafo averred.
On how his group is faring in terms of innovations, he said “We have plans to deploy smart technologies to aid and improve on our operational efficiencies, plans exist to deploy SCADA monitors on our infrastructure, downhole gauges to adequately monitor well performance and a host of other novel technologies that promise to generate increases in production, asset reliability, and exploration successes.”
“The goal is to eventually operate “Smart Fields” which is a term used to define a scenario where all our oil and gas facilities and assets are operated remotely with real-time data feeds from the fields to our control rooms. Big data is also an area where we see a lot of potentials and as thus have put in place plans to leverage on this in order to improve performance.
On the new frontiers and targets for Eroton, Emafo assured that “We will continue to progress our maturation and acquisition activities by identifying new prospects and leads within and around our current acreage.”
He also hinted that Eroton is working on expanding its gas customer base so as to supply and meet existing customer’s demand.
