Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has debunked claims that the exact volume of crude oil produced in Nigeria is not known.
There have been widespread media reports that the exact volume of the black gold cannot be quantified.
But on Friday, Mr Paul Osu, the Head of Public Affairs at the DPR, in a statement issued in Lagos, said every litre of crude produced in the country was adequately captured during the process of extraction.
Mr Osu said it was the responsibility of the DPR to monitor and account for crude oil production as the basis for determining the government’s revenue through royalty payments by operators for sustainable development.
He said: “As a further step to boosting crude accounting process from production to export, DPR recently launched the National Production Monitoring System (NPMS).
“NPMS is an online platform for the direct and independent acquisition of production data from oil and gas facilities in Nigeria.
“NPMS as an electronic data transmission tool at production and export terminals is designed to better predict the performance of oil and gas reservoirs and better production forecasting.”
According to him, the NPMS tool enables DPR to exercise surveillance, perform production monitoring and data analysis for utilisation and forecasting.
Mr Osu said DPR as a business enabler and opportunity house would continue to develop robust and strategic initiatives to ensure timely and accurate payment of rents, royalties and other revenues due to the government.
What is NPMS?
NPMS, as envisaged, will empower the DPR to better determine the royalty payable and issue demand notice on companies.
In addition, the nation will be able to better predict the performance of oil and gas reservoirs and therefore better production forecasting.
By implementing electronic data transmission at Export Terminals (onshore and offshore) by DPR personnel, as well as at the offices of the Operators, the data which is stored in a robust, secure and centralized database ensures uniformity, consistency and quality.
The system includes facilities for the DPR to exercise surveillance, perform production monitoring and be able to utilize the production data for analysis and forecasting.
Access to data is also available to authorized DPR personnel, operators other relevant stakeholders.
The importance of the NPMS scheme will help strengthen efficient, accurate and robust surveillance of the nation’s oil production and export capabilities. It will further ensure DPR’s ability to accurately determine the exact revenue accruing to Nigeria from the oil and gas sector, it will also provide modern and reliable technology for fiscalization of crude.
All oil-producing companies submit production data through the portal forthwith to enable the department to effect a comprehensive real time reporting of the nation’s daily production status to the government.
