Reduction in Oil Theft Drives Nigeria’s Crude Production to 1.5mbpd

The Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) says the nation’s daily crude oil production has increased to 1.5 million barrels per day due to the successes recorded in the fight against oil theft in the Niger Delta region by the military.

The Chief Executive of NUPRC, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, disclosed this in a recent trip to Port Harcourt with the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Leo Irabor.

The trio and others were on a visit to Operation Delta Safe formations in Rivers State.

Mr Komolafe commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to the fight against oil theft and other sundry oil losses in the country.

“There has been progress in combating crude oil theft. You will recall that around September, the menace of oil theft got to a crescendo in a manner that national production decreased to less than 1 million barrels per day. It is commendable that the national production has now increased to around 1.5 million per day,” he said.

The NUPRC boss further said that the commission was working on a holistic approach to end oil theft and sundry oil losses in the country.

According to him, the agency was already engaging Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to ensure all the measurement units at oil terminals are well maintained to minimize oil losses.

“We also have non-kinetic challenges such as measurement issues and losses attributable to error. We are trying to ensure a holistic solution.

“On the approval of the Petroleum Minster (President Buhari), we are trying to ensure that the issue of measurement is addressed. We already have the approval of the minister.

“The commission, as I speak, is engaging OEMs to ensure that all the measurement units across all our terminals are on-spec and well maintained in a manner that will minimize measurement errors because all these, in addition to real oil theft, all attribute to losses.

“So, we are trying to address all these holistically, and it needs the cooperation and synergy of everybody, that is, the security agencies, the regulatory agencies and NNPC, and at the end of the day, the nation will be the beneficiary,” Mr Komolafe stated.

source:https://businesspost.ng/