Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, or NNPCL, has declared a state of emergency in crude oil production.
Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, said this on Tuesday during a keynote presentation at the opening ceremony of the 23rd edition of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG Energy Week) in Abuja.
According to him, “We have agreed to end the argument. We have declared war on the barriers to our crude oil production. War implies war. We have the correct tools. We know what to fight. We understand what we need to accomplish in terms of assets. We have contacted our partners. And we will collaborate to fix the problem.
Kyari went on to say that a rigorous asset study found that Nigeria can produce two million barrels of crude oil per day without deploying additional rigs, and that the biggest barrier is industry actors’ failure to respond quickly.
The NNPCL CEO stated that the conflict will force the firm and its partners to swiftly address all identified hurdles to effective production, including procurement delays, which have become a problem in the industry.
Speaking about medium- to long-term initiatives to improve and sustain output, Kyari stated that NNPC will replace all of the existing crude oil pipelines installed over four decades ago.
He also stated that the business will implement a rig-sharing strategy with its partners to guarantee that production rigs remain in the nation for four to five years, as is typical practice in most countries.
The NNPC chairman asked all industry participants to work together to reduce production costs and increase output to goal levels.
He reaffirmed the company’s commitment to investing in critical midstream gas infrastructure, such as the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) and Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipelines, to increase domestic gas production and supply for power generation, industrial development, and the country’s economic prosperity.
He stated that NNPCL has subsequently joined the presidential compressed natural gas (CNG) initiative and, in partnership with partners such as NIPCO Gas, has built multiple CNG stations.
