Nigeria’s daily crude oil production recorded an upward swing of about 2.09 mmbbl in 2018, translating to a nine per cent increment, compared with the 2017 average daily production of 1.86 mmbbl
Maikanti Baru, group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said the nation had maintained a line of consistent year-on-year improvement.
Baru, who made the submission in a comprehensive end of year message to the staff of the corporation, touted the new business models his team has emplaced in the national oil company’s old and new business entitles as raison d’être for the giant strides.
A statement issued in Abuja by NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, 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.
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 when compared with its 2017 performance.
Baru explained that the average production from NPDC’s operated assets alone grew from an average of 108,000 bopd in 2017 to 165,000 bopd in 2018.
Baru added that NPDC’s equity production share which stands at 172,000bod, representing about eight per cent of national daily production, was no less impressive.
Baru promised that the NNPC would stick to the repayment agreement with the JV partners while transiting to self-funding IJV modes with the corporation’s partners.
He said that tiding up the cash call issues has led to increased commitment and enthusiasm to invest in Nigerian oil and gas industry and has boosted NNPC’s credit profile internationally.
Baru concluded the achievements of NNPC in the upstream sector by listing other milestones achieved by his team to 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.
Other achievements include lowering of production cost from US$27/barrel to US$22/barrel; improvement on the security situation in the Niger Delta through constructive engagement and dialogue with relevant stakeholders.
Baru revealed that in the frontier basins, NNPC has intensified explorations activities in the Benue Trough, with the expected spudding of Kolmani River Well 2 on 19 January 2019.
He explained that activities would resume in the Chad Basin as soon as there is a green light on the security situation in the enclave.
