- Says We Have Declared War On Challenges Affecting Crude Oil Production
- Reveals What’s Stopping Nigeria From “Conveniently Producing 2MBPD
- FG To Commission 12 New CNG Stations On Thursday In Lagos, Abuja.
As Nigeria continues to battle declining oil production, Nigeria’s state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has declared a state of emergency on oil and gas production in Nigeria.
The Matrix reports that since January 2024, Nigeria has consistently failed to produce below the 1.5MBPD quota allotted by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Nigeria has set an audacious 1.7MBPD benchmark for itself and has gone on to make this its 2024 Budget benchmark.
However, data from the Monthly Oil Market Report has shown that Nigeria has consistently failed to miss this quota. For example, in May, the country produced 1.25mbpd, in April, it was 1.28mbpd, in March, the country produced 1.23mbpd, the figure was 1.32mbpd in February down from the 1.42mbpd produced in January 2024.
Reacting to this, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, while delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 23rd edition of the Nigeria Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG Energy Week) in Abuja, on Tuesday disclosed that the oil company will g all out against factors mitigating against oil production in the country.
Hear him; “We have decided to stop the debate. We have declared war on the challenges affecting our crude oil production. War means war. We have the right tools.
“We know what to fight. We know what we have to do at the level of assets. We have engaged our partners. And we will work together to improve the situation,” he declared.
According to him, a detailed analysis of assets revealed that Nigeria can conveniently produce two million barrels of crude oil per day without deploying new rigs, but the major impediment to achieving that remains the inability of players to act in a timely manner.
He said the “war” would help NNPC and its partners to speedily clear all identified obstacles to effective and efficient production such as delays in procurement processes, which have become a challenge in the industry.
On medium to long-term measures aimed at boosting and sustaining production, Kyari said NNPC would replace all the old crude oil pipelines built over four decades ago and also introduce a rig sharing programme with its partners to ensure that production rigs stay in the country for between four and five years which is the standard practice in most climes.
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He called on all players in the industry to collaborate towards reducing the cost of production and boosting production to target levels.
He expressed the Company’s commitment to investing in critical midstream gas infrastructure such as the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipelines to boost domestic gas production and supply for power generation, industrial development and economic prosperity of the country.
On Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Kyari observed that NNPC has since keyed into the Presidential CNG drive, adding that in conjunction with partners such as NIPCO Gas, NNPC Ltd has built a number of CNG stations, 12 of which will be commissioned on Thursday in Lagos and Abuja.
It would be recalled that Nigeria has been battling the menace of oil theft over the years as well.
Just a few weeks ago, the company disclosed that it recorded a total of 400 incidents of crude oil theft in the past week.
Those incidents include; illegal refineries, illegal connections, vandalism, oil spills, illegal storage locations and others, the state oil company disclosed in its weekly program tagged “Energy and You”.
