Page 10 - AfrOil Week 07 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

The strike had led AGOCO to reduce oil pro- Moammar Qaddafi in 2011. In practice, though,
duction from about 320,000 barrels per day to some of its contingents have sided with GNA
around 120,000 bpd. In turn, this cut brought or other groups. Last year, for example, some
Libya’s total oil output down from around PFG members helped Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan
1.25mn bpd to a little more than 1mn bpd. National Army (LNA), GNA’s main rival, block-
However, there may be more disruptions in ade oil terminals and other infrastructure.
the near term. According to Bloomberg, PFG GNA and LNA signed a temporary cease-
members in Es Sider and Ras Lanuf said last fire agreement last September and made the
week that they were ready to initiate another arrangement permanent in October. Since
blockade if they were not paid by March 19. then, the parties have named a prime minister
The PFG is a force created some years ago and have selected the members of a three-man
to protect Libya’s oil infrastructure. It is, in the- presidential body. These officials will lead Libya’s
ory, politically neutral and therefore not bound interim government in the run-up to national
to any of the factions that have been battling elections that are supposed to take place in
for control of the country since the ouster of December of this year. ™

Nigerian government launches

production cost-cutting initiative

NIGERIA NIGERIA’S federal government has launched a to reduce production costs is pivotal to the nine
new initiative designed to bring the cost of pro- priority tasks identified by the Petroleum Minis-
ducing crude oil down to $10 per barrel. try, Sylva said. The organisations involved in the
Speaking at a ceremony marking the debut initiative have already taken a number of meas-
of the Nigerian Upstream Cost Optimisation ures to bring production costs down, but more
Programme (NUCOP), Timipre Sylva, Minis- work is needed to bring Nigerian oil output up to
ter of State for Petroleum Resources, said that 3mn barrels per day (bpd) and expenses down
the initiative would involve experts from multi- to $10 per barrel or less, he stated.
ple government agencies and state-run entities. “They’ve found short- and medium-term
NUCOP’s members will include representatives solutions. Average total cost is now below $30
of the Petroleum Ministry, the Department of per barrel for [a] JV [joint venture] contract and
Petroleum Resources (DPR), the Nigerian less than $20 for [a] PSC [production-sharing
Content Development and Monitoring Board contract]. We need to do more. Engagement
(NCDMB), Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. should reach a consensus on cost reduction. We
(NNPC), the Petroleum Technology Associa- are making a case for shared services ... We want
tion of Nigeria (PETAN) and other organisa- to position Nigeria as the best designation for
tions, he said. investment in the hydrocarbon sector,” he was
Abuja established NUCOP because the push quoted as saying by The Nation.

Nigerian production costs are near $30 per barrel for joint ventures (Photo: Oilserv)

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 17•February•2021