March 29, 2024

Crude oil production shut-ins, not oil theft alone, responsible for about 700,000bpd losses in Nigeria – Mele Kyari

Oredola Adeola

Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited, (NNPC Ltd)  has insisted that operational hiccups especially, production shut-ins, are key factors for crude oil losses, as everything is not compounded by widespread theft incidences.

He made this in a live telecast on the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, monitored by EnergyDay earlier in the week.

Recall that Kyari had previously blown the whistle on the country’s elites as being responsible for the daily loss of 700,000bpd.

The NNPC boss said Nigeria loses 700,000 bpd to crude oil theft and production shut-ins, saying: “It works two ways — one is the direct stealing of the oil and then being processed at the illegal refineries and also taken out from the pipelines.

He said, “What happens is that whenever you have such massive infractions, we shut down our facilities and, therefore, this is opportunity loss. The production could have come on the table and that is why we are currently on the average of 1.4 million barrels of oil.

“We could do 2.1 million. You can technically say that you have lost about 700,000 barrels of oil per day of production. But it doesn’t mean 700,000 bpd are stolen.”

He added that the country would have no option but to shut down production facilities each time the integrity of pipelines is compromised.

 

The NNPC boss also added that it is dangerous for Nigeria to legalise artisanal refineries, insisting that they are just cooking pots gathered somewhere in the oil-producing communities.

 

According to him, modular refineries should be encouraged, instead of illegal refining.

He said, “That’s why there are licenses given out for modular refineries, and they can produce up to 1,000 barrels to 20,000 barrels per day (bpd).

 

“Refining is a science of its own. The cooking pots you are seeing are not refineries in any sense.

“There’s simply no way you can convert these cooking pots to legal refineries. It’s not possible. But modular refineries can be constructed and the NNPCL has a framework for supporting those who want to do modular refineries.”