By Adedapo Adesanya
The chief executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr Mele Kyari, has claimed that Nigeria’s crude oil production is nearing 1.7 million barrels per day.
He said this when he addressed stakeholders at an engagement between the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists and the NNPC in Lagos on Saturday.
According to him, 1.7 million barrels per day was a boost from the 1.28 million barrels reported in April, noting that oil theft and vandalism were responsible for the decline in output in the country.
“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 will put money into oil production when he knows the production will not get to the market. In 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.
Due to pipeline vandalism, Mr Kyari said everyone resorted to barging, with some spending $21 to transport a barrel of oil to the terminals.
“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.
However, Mr Kyari disclosed, “The good news is, there is substantial work 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.
“As of today’s data, we’re inching to 1.7 million barrels per day. We won’t celebrate this. On April 17, 2020, our production, without doing anything, without drilling new wells, shot to 2.2 million barrels per day. 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, which is why we are seeing the new value coming to the table. Production will improve”.
However, Mr Kyari’s stance contradicts numbers presented in the latest Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for May 2024, which said the country’s crude oil production remains at 1.2 million barrels per day based on direct sources.
Based on recent numbers, OPEC said production was at 1.2 million barrels per day, however, it improved to 1.3 million barrels per day by the fourth quarter and remained so until March 2024 when it dropped to 1.2 million barrels per day. Based on this, it shows that production is yet to attain 1.7 million barrels per day, according to OPEC’s statistics.