Why Nigeria oil reserves remain at 37bn bbls-NAPE

From Adewale Sanyaolu, Houston Texas
The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) has disclosed that the over ten years shortfall in Joint Venture (JV) funding remained responsible for the stagnation of oil reserves at its current level of 37 billion barrels.
President of NAPE, Mr. Abiodun Adesanya, stated this on the sidelines of the 10th Annual Sub-Saharan Africa Oil and Gas Conference held in Houston Texas at the weekend.
Adesanya, explained that when there is a shortfall in JV counterpart funding from the Federal Government, the area that takes the first hit is exploration.
He regretted that the budget earmarked for exploration activities as a result of the shortfall in JV funding has dwindled over the years leading to low discoveries in exploration activities.
‘‘If you don’t spend money, you don’t get anything back. It is risky quite alright which is why when the issues of budget cut comes up, the most hit is exploration because of the associated risks. But since the present administration came up with a formula to work on JV funding, we are beginning to see interest.
Don’t forget also that compounded with that is the issue of security in the Niger Delta which again in the last 15 years has been a major challenge,’’said.
The NAPE boss who is also the CEO Degeconek Nigeria Limited, maintained that reserves has not been static, but rather, a plus and minus issue.
As you produce, you deplete. As you promote certain contingents into reserves, you increase. So, what has happened is that it is better to be flat that go down. I guess the strategy is to keep it flat if we cannot make it to go up. That is why you are seeing 37 billion barrels when production is ongoing. Depletion is going on and replenishment is going on simultaneously as well. And when you have that kind of scenario, the figure could go up or down,’’ he explained.
Adesanya, assured that the 40 billion barrels of reserves target by 2020 is achievable because the country has been able to identify where the resources to achieve the target are, adding that there are quite a number of fields that have been discovered but not yet certified by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) into being called reserves.
He hinted that a formula has been found to address that challenge and it seems to be working because the country has witnessed a reduction in the vandalization of production infrastructure and that again has increased the confidence of the operators to step out.
The NAPE boss equally  advised the Federal Government to make provisions for incentives for prospective investors willing to explore the hydrocarbon potentials in frontier basins to increase the depleting reserves in the country.
Adesanya said that this has became necessary against the backdrop of government’s intention to increase the country’s crude oil reserves to 40 billion barrels by 2020.
A frontier basin is a basin where exploration activities have not been carried out or a basin with short-term exploration activities and a significant volume categorised as undiscovered.
He listed Nigeria frontier basins to include; Chad, Anambra, Bida, Dahomey, Gongola/Yola and the Sokoto basins, as well as the Middle/Lower Benue Trough.
According to him, government must provide incentives to investors that are willing to explore in the frontier basins because there is something that takes these companies to such basins in the first instance.