Nigeria’s Oil Reserves Will Be Depleted In 49 Years — DPR

Daniel Ojukwu

The Department of Petroleum Resources has forecasted that the nation’s crude oil reserves will be depleted in 49 years.

The reserves of 37 billion barrels stood at 37.45 billion barrels in 2014, 37.06 billion barrels in 2015, 36.74 billion barrels in 2016, but rose to 36. 97 billion barrels in 2017 and 37 billion barrels in 2018.

It said the nation’s depletion rate was 2.04 percent annually and it’s life index was 49.03 years.

It said, “This indicator gives a bird’s eye on an annual basis, what percentage proportion of the quoted reserves was produced.

“The life index, on the other hand, is a measure of the reserves as of January 1, 2019, divided by the total production in 2018. This parameter highlights how long (in years) quoted reserves volumes will be available for production.”

It said to achieve the aspiration of producing four million barrels per day and having a reserve of 40 billion barrels, reserves have to be increased as production increases.