LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, said that Nigeria is nearing the April COVID-19 era of oil production of 2.2 million barrels per day.
Currently, data revealed that the country’s oil production per day is inching towards 1.7mbpd compared to 1.28mbpd produce in April.
Recall the nation’s crude production fell from 1.32 million barrels daily in February to 1.23 million barrels daily in March
Kyari, who spoke at the weekend in Lagos, highlighted the challenges sabotaging oil production during an engagement with stakeholders between the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and the NNPCL.
He said, “As of today’s data, we’re inching to 1.7mbpd. We won’t celebrate this. On 17th of April 2020, our production, without doing anything, without drilling new wells, shot to 2.2mbpd. The difference was COVID-19. The thieves, the vandals, everybody went to sleep.
“We should be able to take control of this infrastructure. We are doing many things. I am very sure things are changing and that is why we are seeing the new value that is coming on the table. Production will improve”.
READ ALSO: Crude Oil, Gas Reserves Hit 37.50 Billion Barrels
Kyari stated that there is an ongoing critical gas infrastructure projects that can accommodate 8 billion stock of gas daily and ensure safe transport through an extensive pipeline network within the next four years.
The NNPCL boss also pointed out on the issue of oil theft and vandalism as a major threat to why the nation’s crude oil production keeps declining, and hopeful it would be end very soon.
“How do you increase oil production? Remove the security challenge we have in our onshore assets. As we all know, the security challenge is real. It is not just about theft, it is about the availability of the infrastructure to deliver the volume to the market.”
“No one is going to put money into oil production when he knows the production will not get to the market. Within the last two years, we removed over 5,800 illegal connections from our pipelines. We took down over 600 illegal refineries – cooking pots or whatever they were. You simply cannot get people to put money until you solve that problem,” he stated.
He said the idea of barging came into the business as a result of pipeline vandalism where transporting a barrel of oil to the terminals cost $21.
He argued that barging and the trucking of petroleum products did not happen in the 1990s.
He further explained, “Barging is not normal. Barging is not economical, even trucking. In 1991, we didn’t think of barging, even to put oil on the trucks. But that’s what we are doing today,” he stated.
“The good news is, there is substantial work that is being done by the government and I’m not going to speak about it. But I know that this will come to pass. It’s already subsiding. We are already seeing the results.
READ ALSO: NNPC Partners EFCC To Battle Crude Oil Theft
In his final speech, Kyari noted that the AKK pipeline is a vital element in the discussion about developing the infrastructure needed to ensure gas supply.
He assured that the flow of gas from east to west would be completed by June as the remaining task to achieve this feat is just 2.7km river crossing.
OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report for May, said Nigeria’s oil production added 50,000 barrels daily in the last month after it fell in recent times during the month before.