March 28, 2024

Nigeria’s crude oil production hits 1.59mbpd, as FG adopts 4-pronged strategy against oil theft

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Oredola Adeola

Nigeria’s crude oil production output has been restored to 1.59 million barrels per day, from 937,000 barrels per day it was as of September.

Bala Wunti, Chief Upstream Investment Officer (CUIO), who doubles as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd(NNPCL) Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS),  made this known at the panel session at the ongoing 11th Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) forum in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state, organised by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) on Tuesday.

According to him, the production recovery was credited to the government’s rectangular approach to the fight against crude oil theft.

Mr. Wunti noted that the Nigerian Government has adopted a rectangular security approach to curbing the menace of energy theft and pipeline vandalism.

Giving a breakdown of the approach, he said, “The first strategy was the constitution of the security agencies including the Navy, Nigerian Police, and other paramilitary involved in maintaining sanity within the Niger-Delta regions. .

“The second approach is the role played by the upstream regulators. By this, we ensured that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission(NUPRC) is committed to governance as enshrined in the Petroleum Industry Act(PIA) 2021.”

“The third approach is the coordination of activities of all the operators responsible for crude oil production.

“The fourth is the incorporation of the oil-producing communities in the efforts to checkmate the activities of vandals and other saboteurs.

He noted that the four-pronged strategy has helped the country detect, deter, and evolved strategies to effectively respond to these criminal tendencies.

“The production level that we have been able to achieve, through this coordinated strategy could further increase our output from the current 1.59 million BPD above Nigeria’s Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)OPEC production quota.

Osagie Okunbor, Country Chair and Managing Director of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) while speaking on the topic of the panel session, Defining the Requisite Roadmap for Gas Production, revealed that the coordinated fight against insecurity and oil theft in the oil-producing communities is critical to production output growth.

He said, “It’s important we focus attention on curbing insecurity, to take advantage of our abundant gas reserves & provide an enabling environment and finance.”

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