Introduction

"Oil and gas hydrocarbons in a specific field are depletable reserves. Once the first barrel has been produced, the asset, in a sense, is on a declining curve. That barrel once produced, cannot be produced again". [1] It is perhaps with this underlying principle that the Nigerian government initiated a policy directive to significantly increase its daily petroleum output and reserve base. More importantly however is the fact that the nations current reserve is expected to be exhausted within the next 34 years at the present production level of about 2 million bpd.[2] For a ...