… Theft, pipeline vandalism responsible for volumes of crude oil losses – Sylva
… No, metering error is responsible for Nigeria’s huge oil revenue losses – Komolafe
Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, and chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, have sharply divided over major factor responsible for crude losses in the country.
Komolafe in a document presented at one of major industry events in Nigeria said that measurement inaccuracies is a major factor for huge looses suffered by Nigeria in the sector.
To prove his point, the NUPRC’s chief executive claimed that about 40% of the volumes of crude losses are due to measurement inaccuracies.
The minuster, on the contrary, declared that oil theft and pipeline vandalism remain the major sources of losses.
READ ALSO: Lagos Varsity’s CEO Account Slumps, Dies While On Queue At WEMA Bank
PLATFORMS AFRICA, LYGEL, OTHERS PARTNER FOR NIGERIA ELECTIONS’ MONITORING
Customs Boss Queries NNPC’s ’60m Ltrs’ Daily Consumption Figure
Petrol Hits N400 Per Litre In Lagos, Nigerians Query ‘Media Silence’
Minister Inspects Petrol Outlets In Lagos Four Months After Fuel Crisis Began
Oil Workers Kick As Petrol Hits N650 Per Litre
Mr. Sylva in a press statement sent out by Horatius Egua, his Senior Adviser, Media & Communications, said; “It is a known fact that the major losses of crude oil in the country have been through theft and destruction of oil pipelines. Again we also know that some of the oil infrastructure are old and decayed and cannot perform at maximum capacity. And there is also the issue of lack of investments in fossil fuel in the country and the drive towards renewable energy has really hampered new investments in this sector.”
The minister said the Government has put measures in place to restore sanity in the sector adding that contrary to the report, the problem associated with crude oil losses are systemic issues that the government was already handling with a view to finding permanently solutions to.
He urged the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to harmoniously work together to ensure that the constraints and impeding challenges in the optimal crude oil production volume were speedily addressed to boost national revenue.
The Nigerian Government cannot, according to him, continue to lose revenue through perceived lapses in crude oil production, especially at this very critical period of scarce revenue for the nation emphasizing that this was not the time to dwell on the mistakes of the past or engaged in needless blame games but a time to work to close all existing leakages to enable government get maximum benefits from its crude oil and gas assets.
While expressing satisfaction at the improved security along the major oil pipelines in the region, Sylva called for sustained efforts by all concerned to maintain maximum crude oil production.
“We are very confident that Nigeria will achieve 2 million barrel per day crude oil production target very soon. The government is doing everything possible to get to where we should be and everyone is working hard to achieve this,” the minister said.
Gbenga Komolafe had stated sometime last week that metering errors account for around 40% of the crude oil losses in Nigeria’s production generally attributed to oil theft.
“A forensic audit on the scale of crude theft, conducted by the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for the period between January 2020 and November 2022, has shown that 40% of the volumes thought to be lost to oil theft were actually due to inaccuracies in measurement at oil and gas facilities,” NUPRC’s chief executive Gbenga Komolafe said.
“Admittedly, one major area of value erosion in the industry is the menace of crude oil theft,” Komolafe said in a speech at an energy industry event in Lagos.
“Our records indicate that the menace of oil theft has negatively impacted the oil and gas sector for about two decades,” the head of the upstream watchdog added.
“NUPRC will now be responsible for the deployment and maintenance of metering facilities across Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, for transparency in hydrocarbon accounting,” he said.
