Nigeria uses the concessionary petroleum fiscal system for onshore investment in the country where the ownership of the hydrocarbon resources belongs to the contractor's. The government then gets her revenue through payment of royalties and taxes. A fixed royalty rate of 20% is specified for onshore petroleum investment in the country. This kind of royalty payment system is regressive in nature and affects the sustainability of E&P firms during period of low oil price. This research considered the incorporation of a delayed royalty framework into the concessionary petroleum fiscal system in Nigeria. Two economic models were built to evaluate upstream petroleum investment in Nigeria onshore environment using the spreadsheet modeling technique. The delayed royalty framework was incorporated into one of the model. The delay in royalty payment was made as a function of the time it takes the contractor to recoup his capital before payment of royalty and taxes. Oil price was varied in the model between $30-$90/bbl to see the impact of the delay in royalty payment on the sustainability of the investment under the delayed royalty framework. It was observed that the delayed royalty framework made the contractor to recoup his capital early during the life of the investment. It also increased the contractor's revenue which will help to increase the sustainability of the investment during period of low oil price.

This experimental work evaluates the physical properties of Abagbu and Yegbata bitumen from Nigeria with comparison with that of Canada being the world largest producer of crude oil from bitumen. This study employed the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) methods in conducting laboratory experiments in order to determine the viscosity, specific gravity, API gravity, pour point and flash point. A Gas Chromatograph (GC) was used to determine the hydrocarbon content of the bitumen samples. Test results show that the bitumen samples have specific gravity of 1.01 with a 0.9962 OAPI for Yegbata, while the Agbabu bitumen sample had 8.599 specific gravity and 10.54 OAPI. Kinematic viscosity ranges of 1.0×102 – 3.3×104 and 1.6×103 – 5.6×104, flash point of 288oC and 282oC and pour point of 44oC and 47oC. The gas chromatography analysis showed that the samples contained 46.35% and 7.59% saturates, 21.63% and 64.39% aromatics and 32.03% and 28.01% resins for Agbabu and Yegbata respectively. In comparison with Athabasca bitumen, the results were similar. The assessment and comparison of these properties with the properties of bitumen from Athabasca in Canada reveals that any surface or subsurface crude bitumen gotten from Agbabu and Yegbata in Ondo State, Nigeria can be exploited using similar technologies, if not the same as the technologies being used in Athabasca, Canada

In this study, a performance evaluation of an aluminium oxide modified onion skin waste (Al2O3/OSW) for the removal of heavy metal ions (Pb2+ and Cd2+) from aqueous solution was investigated under batch mode adsorption. The surface morphology, elemental composition, functional groups, textural characteristics and surface charge of the as-made Al2O3/OSW adsorbent were examined using SEM, EDX, FTIR, BET surface area and pHpzc techniques, respectively. The effects of initial cations concentration, contact time, adsorbent dosage, and pH on adsorption of Pb2+ and Cd2+ onto Al2O3/OSW were studied. The adsorption data obtained were evaluated by various adsorption isotherm and kinetic models. Results obtained showed that maximum removal percentages of Pb2+ and Cd2+ were 91.23 and 94.10%, respectively, at the optimum Al2O3/OSW dosage of 1.4 g, contact time of 180 min and aqueous solution pH of 6.0. The isotherm and kinetic studies showed a multilayer adsorbate-adsorbent system with the dominance of the chemisorption mechanism. The study concluded that onion skin waste is a viable, cheap and very effective alternative for removing heavy metal ions from water/wastewater.

Nigeria's bitumen deposits are estimated at 37 billion barrels in reserve, covering 120 kilometers costal belts of the South-Western part of the country, with most of the reserves in Ondo state. With growing interests in the extraction of bitumen in Nigeria, it is important to note that development of tar sand contributes toxic metals to the environment. This research is focused on the determination of heavy metals concentration in Nigeria tar sands. Tar sand samples were collected from three different locations namely Aye Rail head, Loda Irele, and Agbabu in Ondo State. Heavy metal analysis was carried out to determine the concentrations of eight metals; Mn, Cd, Pb, Fe, Zn, Ni, Cr, and Cu using atomic absorption spectrophotometry techniques and energy dispersive x-ray Spectroscopy. Results obtained indicates that Fe had the highest concentration across the three samples with a concentration of 4.8 ppm, 6.075 ppm and 114.65 ppm in Aye Rail head, Loda Irele, and Agbabu samples respectively. Pb was not detected in Aye Rail Head sample, as Cd and Cr were not also detected in Loda Irele sample. For Aye Rail head sample, concentration of metals was low except for Fe, Ni, and Cr with values above the recommended standard set by WHO and NIS. Similarly, for Lori Irele sample, Pb, Fe and Ni showed higher concentrations. While the sample from Agbabu indicated a higher concentration of metals such as Mn, Cd, Pb, Fe, Ni and Cr, making it more toxic in terms of heavy metals. Amongst the heavy metals investigated, only Zn and Cu were below the recommended limits in the three samples. Results from this study provides information for exploration activities and environmental impact assessment of the region.

The causes of low oil production from wells includes skin, low permeability and high rate of pressure depletion among other factors. Skin is a major challenge in oil production because it causes additional pressure drop around the wellbore. Hence, there is a drop in oil flow from the resevoir to surface facilities. Skin could be as a result of formation damage, poor production practices, well deviation, and poor well completion. The effect of skin is measured using skin factor which is a dimensionless parameter. A positive value of the skin factor indicates flow restriction while a negative value indicates a stimulated reservoir. Pressure maintenance is a method used to increase oil recovery from the reservoir by maintaining the reservoir pressure above the bubble point pressure of the reservoir. In this study, water injection was used as the method of pressure maintenance. The results showed that skin factor has much effect on oil production despite the pressure maintenance carried out in the reservoir; the rate of oil production was hindered depending on the value of the skin factor for the well. Oil reservoirs are more sensitive to skin despite pressure maintenance and in some scenario the skin even had a greater effect. Also, for wells in a reservoir having high skin factor, it is advisable to reduce the injection pressure and flowrate. The voidage replacement ratio should be recalculated to consider the outflow from the wells. The simulation resuts also showed that for reservoir with wells having high skin factor, pressure maintenance is very risky because this could lead to over pressure in the reservoir and when the reservoir pressure exceeds the fracture pressure of the reservoir rock, the reservoir fractures thus leading to loss of oil from the reservoir.