By Amofokhai Williams
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on Tuesday said it had declared a state of emergency on production in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
The company said the move is towards increasing Nigeria’s crude oil production and growing its reserves.
Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, in a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 23rd edition of the Nigeria Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG Energy Week) in Abuja, on Tuesday, said “We have decided to stop the debate.”
“We have declared war on the challenges affecting our crude oil production. War means war. We have the right tools. We know what to fight. We know what we have to do at the level of assets. We have engaged our partners. And we will work together to improve the situation,” he said.
The NNPCL chief added that a detailed analysis of assets revealed that Nigeria could conveniently produce two million barrels of crude oil per day without deploying new rigs.
He said the the major impediment to achieving that remained the inability of players to act in a timely manner.
Kyari stated that the “war” would help NNPC Ltd. and its partners to speedily clear all identified obstacles to effective and efficient production such as delays in procurement processes, which had become a challenge in the industry.
He said on medium to long-term measures aimed at boosting and sustaining production, NNPC Ltd. would replace all the old crude oil pipelines built over four decades ago and also introduce a rig sharing programme with its partners to ensure that production rigs stayed in the country for between four and five years which is the standard practice in most climes.
He called on all players in the industry to collaborate towards reducing the cost of production and boosting production to target levels.
Kyari expressed the Company’s commitment to investing in critical midstream gas infrastructure such as the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipelines to boost domestic gas production and supply for power generation, industrial development and economic prosperity of the country.
