Oil production now 1.6 million barrels daily – NNPCL

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, on Monday, said Nigeria’s oil production had increased to 1.6 million barrels per day, a few millions short of the 1.8 million barrels per day quota allocated to Nigeria by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive, Mele Kyari, revealed this at a meeting of industry stakeholders, called to discuss the challenges of crude oil theft and losses affecting the oil and gas sector.

He also stated that the rectangular security approach, comprising NNPCL and partners, regulators, government security agencies and host communities, boosted by the adoption of technology, ensured the recovery of production from what it was in July 2022 to the current 1.67 million barrels per day.

Kyari, who was represented by the Head, Upstream Investment, NNPCL, Bala Wunti, at the event, which was chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said the implementation of the Detect, Deter, Destroy and Recover had paid off.

Other strategies that were deployed include the establishment of the Central Command and Control Centre for effective monitoring and coordination, the launch of the Whistle-Blowers Portal and the Crude Oil Validation Portal, as well as the deployment of surveillance tools in the fight against oil theft and vandalism.

He said a key element of the collaboration had been the onboarding of the private security contractors from the host communities, which were hitherto isolated.

According to Kyari, the security contractors’ in-depth knowledge of the terrain and modus operandi of the criminals had led to massive discoveries of illegal connections and interception of vessels ferrying stolen crude oil.

Kyari said with the current sustained efforts, facilities that have been shut down have reopened, and injection of crude oil into major trunklines for evacuation to the terminals was being ramped up.