By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has claimed that Nigeria’s oil production, as of December 6, 2022, was 1.59 million barrels per day.
The Chief Upstream Investment Officer at the NNPC’s Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Mr Bala Wunti, disclosed this yesterday at the ongoing 11th Practical Nigerian Content forum in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State.
Mr Wunti said due to the government’s intervention, the country’s oil production output had increased amid the oil theft crisis, adding that the government was resolving the issues using three strategies which are detect, deter, and respond appropriately.
Representing the Chief Executive Officer of the oil company, Mr Mele Kyari, Mr Wunti revealed that Nigeria had not recorded significant funding in the oil and gas sector in the last 10 years.
“We were able to get the trans-Forcados pipeline back to work. And ultimately, the net effect of that is that from one million barrels three months ago, we are back to 1.5 million barrels per day. Is that our ambition? No. We believe we can get back to 2.4 million barrels per day early next year,” he revealed.
He also insisted that Nigeria can hit 2.4 million barrels per day if the challenges confronting the sector are sorted.
Making a case for the usage of gas for industrial development, the NNPC official submitted that gas provides the opportunity to power the global economy in a sustainable manner.
According to him, to deepen gas utilisation, NNPCL has decided to focus on in-country infrastructure. While NNPC Limited is currently supplying about 1.1 billion standard cubic feet (scf) per day to the Lagos area, Mr Kyari insisted that the company has the capacity to supply 3.6 billion scf daily.
In his presentation, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr Simbi Wabote, revealed that the in-country capacity in the oil and gas industry had reached 54 per cent.
He added that a total of 178 Nigerian Content (NC) plans and 197 NC Compliance Certificates were approved in 2022, saying that has ensured an increase in the involvement of Nigerian businesses in the industry contracting process resulting in an increase in the percentage of the number of contract awards to Nigerian businesses from 79 per cent in 2021 to 82 per cent in 2022.
Dipo Olowookere