OIL & GAS: Professionals Call For Speedy Approval Of FDP

Kingsley Momoh - Lagos

The oil industry in Nigeria might be on its way to some improvement in the area of oil exploration going by the efforts of speakers and other participants at the 2018 edition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Technical symposium with the theme: expediting FDP approval: key actions to ensure efficiency and value-added process. FDP is one of the fundamental criteria in the development of upstream exploration and production projects in Nigeria.

Some of the main issues that have resulted in delay of approvals are the inadequacy or incompleteness of plans that do not address all the project development issues. However, if FDP approval is delayed, it will in turn delay production, revenue, profitability, economic development, job creations, growth and investments in the industry.

Therefore, timely FDP approval is a win-win for both the government and the investors. In a sense, FDP is the roadmap for the development of any asset in the oil and gas sector. Therefore, to a large degree, it defines the success or otherwise of the field. This is the document the regulator of our oil and gas industry, DPR must approve before the commencement of activities in any oil field of our nation.

The symposium held on Thursday may 17^th, 2018 at oriental hotel, Victoria Island Lagos was well attended by professionals in the oil and gas industry. Notable among them is the minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachukwu who was represented by Johnson Awoyemi, the senior technical adviser in the ministry of petroleum resources. Other speakers include Mordecai Baba Ladan, a director in the department of petroleum resources, Emeka Ene of Oildata energy group who was the moderator of the symposium.

The event which was attended by professionals from all sectors of the oil and gas industries was a rich discuss on the effects of delay in approval of field development plan FDP by the department of petroleum resources.

The robust symposium held for about two hours with the egg heads of the industry churning out their opinions pertaining the theme all with the aim of making the FDP approval for oil and gas projects more effective and also timely.

Eventually, the take home from this symposium is the call to operators in the industry to collaborate with the regulators in ensuring speedy approvals of field development plans (FDPs) to attract investments to the oil and gas sector. It is imperative that the federal government act quickly to evaluate and approve FDP to ensure that the momentum of investors does not nosedive due to frustration and other negative impacts of late approvals.