from OKORO CHINEDU in Lagos, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
LAGOS, (CAJ News) - ATLANTIC Energy called for more indigenous companies to join in taking the Nigerian oil and gas industry forward.

The Co-Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Energy, Scott Aitken, said while indigenous firms were responsible for over 90 percent of production, there were hundreds of undeveloped onshore discoveries, hence the need for more local companies.

He also noted that recently, the Nigerian government tasked the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), an operator (and fully owned subsidiary of the NNPC) who are in a strategic alliance with Atlantic Energy to develop a number of NPDC’s assets to drastically increase its production of crude oil and natural gas.

 NPDC has 130 000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) of current production with a target of reaching 250 000 bopd by 2015 and significantly increasing the supply of domestic gas to the country to enable an increase in power generation and support local manufacturing industries.

Atlantic Energy through its Strategic Alliance with NPDC, will assist NPDC attain this target.

Additionally, Aiken stated, a significant portion of the Nigeria’s marketed natural gas is processed into LNG and this natural gas only constituted 4 percent of the country’s energy consumption as at 2010.

However, the power sector privatization is driving an increased demand for gas, with an installed capacity of 7 000 MW and a target capacity of 16 000 MW by the end of 2013.

Atlantic Energy was a platinum sponsor at the recently concluded 13th Nigerian Oil and Gas conference, one of Africa’s largest oil and gas conference.

Held in Abuja was a gathering of over 1 000 national and international senior level delegates from the Upstream, Midstream and Downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry.