BREAKING NEWS, Oil & Gas
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Crude oil production in Nigeria increases to 2.4 million barrels due to security measures taken by the ministry of petroleum resources to curb crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism
| By Maureen Chigbo | Oct. 7, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT
THE effort of the ministry of petroleum resources to revamp the oil and gas industry is yielding fruit. Oil production in the country increased to 2.4 million barrels recently from the massive decline recorded early in the year due to crude oil theft. This is largely due to the high level security strategy committee which Deizani Alison-Madueke set up in the wake of the escalating incidence of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft which robbed the country of about 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
In the past few months, Alision-Madueke ratcheted up measures to tackle the key challenges facing the sector. The challenges resulted in the shutdown of three major trunk lines, Trans Niger Pipeline, the Nembe Greek Pipeline and the Tebidaba-Brass Pipeline. The work of the high level security strategy committee headed by Emmanuel Uduaghan, Delta State governor, has resulted in the restoration of the three lines. This will necessitate increased production and shore up the revenue accruing to the country.
Tumuni Green, acting group general manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in a statement made available to Realnews, said that the rise in crude oil production in the country to 2.4 million barrels per day was as a result of the recent action taken by Alison-Madueke.
Green implored Nigerians to spare time to understand the negative impact of crude oil theft on efforts to meet production target, calling on all well-meaning people in the country to support the efforts of the government towards ending the scourge. According to her, the recent approval of N15 billion by the National Economic Council, NEC, for adequate policing of oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta region to stem crude oil theft would go a long way in curbing the menace.
She lauded the minister of petroleum resources for putting modalities in place to grow crude oil production in the country, listing her major achievements to include ensuring sustained petroleum products supply and distribution across the country, revamping of Petroleum Pricing and Marketing Company, PPMC, depot/recovery of vital petroleum products supply pipelines, ongoing rehabilitation and turn around maintenance, TAM, of the three refineries.
There is also the recent growth in crude oil and gas production by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, because of the new Oil Mining Leases assigned to it. The sector has also recorded an unprecedented level of gas supply, especially the domestic gas supply for power generation, industrial and household use. All these happened as a result of the determined efforts by the minister to fully tap the potentials of the gas sub-sector by putting in place the presidential gas revolution agenda.
Other achievements of the minister include the implementation of the domestic gas supply obligation, DGSO, by the signing of relevant gas supply purchase agreements, GSPAs, amongst buyers, gas suppliers and the aggregator company and the completion of the engineering studies of Calabar – Umuahia – Ajaokuta – Kaduna – Kano gas pipeline or otherwise called the Trans-Nigerian Gas Pipeline, TNGP. There is also the development of Gas Network Code, which will facilitate access to gas pipeline network by companies and the development of the Ogidigben Gas-Based Industrial City with major industries, fertiliser plants, petrochemical plants and Ob/Ob Central Processing.
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