Page 11 - AfrOil Week 27 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

In other words, this trend was already emerging Monetary Fund (IMF).
well before global energy markets began spiking “When you consider the chaos, the social
upwards and before Brent crude prices started disharmony and ... instability such an action
settling above $100 per barrel. As such, future (of abolishing subsidies) would facilitate, is it
CBN reports covering the months of March worth it? I don’t think so,” Lai Mohammed told
and beyond are likely to note increased deficit Reuters.
spending by the Nigerian government – espe- As well as import issues, the country’s domes-
cially since NNPC Ltd has already reported tic petroleum production has also failed to meet
additional upticks in outlays on the domestic targets set by the government, while crude oil
gasoline subsidy. theft has also hit the economy.
Also on July 4, the Nigeria Union of Petro-
Fuel subsidy to remain in place leum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG)
Despite the burden that the fuel subsidy places warned that the government’s deliberate policy
on Nigeria’s economy, though, the government of importation rather than local refining was
will not be removing its fuel subsidy, Informa- causing shortages.
tion Minister Lai Mohammed said on July 4. “We cannot understand why the govern-
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil exporter, but due ment has refused to invest in local refining of
to a lack of refining capacity, it needs to import petroleum products. I can tell you that scarcity
almost all of its fuel. The country has a fuel sub- of fuel will continue in the country in as much
sidy to help reduce the cost for the consumer, as we depend on importation of these products,”
and is currently suffering from shortages. said NUPENG head Prince William Akporeha.
Abuja had previously planned to scrap the “Nigeria is the only oil-producing country that
subsidy, but has cancelled the plans follow- depends on importation of products. Refining is
ing concerns expressed by the International not rocket science.” ™

Invictus Energy makes upward revision

in resource estimate of Mukuyu gas field

ZIMBABWE AUSTRALIA’S Invictus Energy said on July 5
that it had upgraded the prospective resource
estimate for Mukuyu, one of two fields within
its Special Grant 4571 (SG 4571) licence area in
the Cabora Bassa basin, following the analysis of
new seismic data.
In a statement, Invictus explained that it
had received an updated independent report
on SG 4571 from ERCE, a UK-based energy
consultancy. That report revises the prospective
resource estimate for the Mukuyu field up to
4.3bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), including
20 trillion cubic feet (566.4bn cubic metres) of
natural gas and 845mn barrels of gas conden-
sate, it said.
ERCE incorporated new data from the Cab-
ora Bassa 2D seismic survey and covered eight
stacked targets when drawing up the resource
estimate for Mukuyu, it added. (The Mukuyu
field was previously known as Muzarabani.)
Invictus’ previous resource estimate, drawn
up by AIM-listed Getech Group, put Mukuyu’s
reserves at 1.6bn boe on a gross mean unrisked
basis, including 8.2 tcf (232.2 bcm) of gas and The SG 4571 licence area is in the Cabora Bassa basin (Image: Invictus Energy)
247mn barrels of gas condensate. Getech’s report
also estimated the reserves of Msasa, the smaller in August, the statement said. It had been due to
of the two fields at SG 4571, at 1.05 tcf (29.73 spud the well in June, but its drilling rig has been
bcm) of gas and 44mn barrels of condensate. delayed because of problems related to customs
The Australian company is now aiming up clearance during overland transport through
to start drilling the Mukuyu-1 exploration well Tanzania and Mozambique to Zimbabwe.

Week 27 06•July•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11