Featured, Oil & Gas
By Anthony Isibor
THE Shell Company Country Chairman in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, has applauded the government for the progress recorded in pipeline security so far in the country.
Okunbor, who made the commendation, while speaking at a panel session on gas policy, regulation, and Sustainable Solutions in LNG, LPG, CNG and Gas-to-Power, however, called on the government to sustain the momentum so that we don’t lose the success recorded so far.
He said that although Nigeria has not completely solved the security challenges, which has been one of the existing issues that the sector has faced over the years, however, things are turning for the better.
Okunbor recalled that at a point, the reconciliation factor, which is essentially recorded as what was put in versus what goes out was down to 10%.
“It is like a percentage, you expect to get it in the high 90’s on a normal day. At some point, we came down to 10%. So 90% of the fillable that we put in the line didn’t get there,” he explained,
Calling on the security agencies to do more, he said: “This current government, I give a lot of credence to some of the key officials, in the security agencies, the National Security Adviser; they have paid a kind of attention to security in the Delta that we have not seen in a long time.
“I say it because I deal with it on a day to day basis, I experience it and you see the direct impact in terms of production. But our biggest problem if we are not careful, we rest on our oars
“I see all the signals that we are on our way to improving things substantially, not just one company, but all companies.
So we are looking up as a country, but it is also important that we sustain this momentum that we have seen.
“I want to get to my 1.8 bcf a day, which is my share of the supply to the NLNG and I want it to stay there.
“It doesn’t mean we are there yet, but in January, we supplied probably the highest to the NLNG in 3 years,” he said.
Explaining further, Osagie disclosed that there was a year that the security situation became so bad that we had to shut down for about a year. And at some point, it was only Total that managed to keep its supply obligations.
“We came down at some point to almost half of our supply. We are contracted to supply some 1.8 bcf of gas, which is over 50% of the total supply. So even with Total doing its best, it was always going to be difficult, Agip was also struggling, and this was all down to the issues of vandalism of our pipeline systems. So it was one of my most difficult days.
“So even from the basic responsibility perspective, we couldn’t continue to run that line so we had to take it down and that had a big impact on supply to the NLNG,” he said.
A.I
Tags: NIES2024 Osagie Okunbor Shell
