Amid anxiety over crude oil glut worldwide and the fear that the country may not be able to meet the 2.3 million barrels per day production as projected in the 2019 budget, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) claims the country’s crude oil was in the upward swing in 2018.
According to the NNPC, the daily production was about 2.09 million barrels in out-gone 2018, translating to a 9 percent increment, compared with the 2017 average daily production of 1.86 million barrels.
The corporation did not however disclose the exact volume of crude oil and also the volume of condensate that does fall under the control of OPEC quota produced.
According to Maikanti Baru, group managing director, NNPC, pitched against the low-level daily crude oil production in 2016 and what obtains now, the nation had maintained a line of consistent year-on-year improvement.
For the crude oil increment and other milestones recorded by the NNPC in the out-gone 2018, who made the submission in a comprehensive end of year message to staff of the corporation, touted the new business models his team had put in place in the national oil company’s old and new business entitles as raison d’être for the giant strides.
A press release signed by Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC group general manager, group public affairs division, said the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Duke Oil, NIDAS and Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), were among the re-engineered companies listed by the NNPC boss in his statement.
Ughamadu said Baru singled out NPDC, the corporation’s upstream flagship company, as the major contributor to the Industry’s success story in 2018, expressing enthusiasm on the 52 per cent daily crude oil production growth by the company vis-à-vis its 2017 performance.
The NNPC boss in the end-of-year statement explained that the average production from NPDC’s operated assets alone grew from an average of 108,000 of oil per day (bod) in 2017 to 165,000bod in 2018, describing the feat as the strongest production growth within the Oil Industry in recent times, even as he added that it was worth being celebrated.
He said NPDC’s equity production share which stands at 172,000bod, representing about 8 per cent of national daily production, was no less impressive, saying the desired results are outcomes of initiatives his Management team emplaced, among which, he noted, are the Asset Management Tea (AMT) structure, Strategic Financing, Units Autonomy and security architecture framework.
Of the Industry milestones in the outgone year, the corporation stated that $1.7 billion was saved by NNPC, with corporation’s Joint Venture (JV) partners over a five-year tenor repayment plan, saying already the corporation has defrayed $1.5 billion of the arrears.
He made the promise that NNPC would stick to the Repayment Agreement with the JV Partners while transiting to self-funding IJV modes with the corporations partners, saying that tiding up the Cash Call issues has led to increased commitment and enthusiasm to invest in Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry even as it has also boosted NNPC’s credit profile internationally.
Other milestones achieved by NNPC include: reduction in contracting cycle for Upstream Operations to nine months from an average of 24, even as the corporation targets a six months cycle; lowering of production cost from $27/barrel to $22/barrel; and improving on the security situation in the Niger Delta through constructive engagement and dialogue with relevant stakeholders.
