Nigeria Cuts Time Taken to Approve Oil Wells Application
Nigeria’s oil regulator has cut the time taken (TT) to approve applications to revive idle oil wells from weeks to hours, as Africa’s top crude producer seeks to capitalise on high energy prices.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission is approving permits within hours of applications, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the process.
With oil trading near $100 a barrel, Africa’s top producers are moving to capitalise on demand as buyers turn to suppliers such as Nigeria and Angola, away from the Middle East conflict. The West
Authority also fast-tracked approvals for evacuations and barges at production facilities and export terminals. A spokesman at the regulator said “speedy approvals” were being given for all activities that could increase production.
The recent surge in applications has come from mostly local oil companies seeking to re-enter old wells. They are being encouraged by the regulator, which is streamlining an approval process that previously took anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks.
Repairing older or suspended wells for production is cheaper than drilling new wells, which can take years of planning, and any potential crude typically takes an average of 4 weeks to reach the surface.
