By; PATRICK TITUS, Uyo
Nigeria may risk not meeting OPEC’s production quota of 1.830 million barrels per day with a down turn on its economy, if nothing is done to address identified gaps that have led to recent decreased in production.
The Chairman, Senate Committee On Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Bassey Akpan raised the concern in Port Harcourt at the wekend, when the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft rounded off its oversight with a visit to EGINA FPSO oil and gas terminal in Rivers State, the largest oil production Rig in Africa.
Senator Akpan noted that it was incumbent on the nation to address identified gaps that led to decreased production over the months so as to meet OPEC’s production quota of 1.830 million barrels per day for economic gains.
According to him, “the figure obtained for August 2022, stood at 972,000 barrels of crude per day, which represents only 53% percent of the nation’s production capacity and the lowest in the past couple of years”.
The lawmaker reasoned that the trend, if not reversed, would plunge the country into financial difficulties, as crude oil remains the dominant source of revenue and foreign exchange to Nigeria.
He further said the committe embarked on an on-the-spot assessment of the facilities to garner first-hand information on factors that would led to increased oil theft and decline in production capacity.
While promising to work in synergy with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and other key industry players, Senator Akpan however, expressed optimism that the trend would be reversed in the coming months.
The Senate Committee Chairman commended Total Energy, owners and operators of the facility, which has a production capacity of 2.3 million barrels per day, for adhering strictly to industry regulations and reporting no shortfall in oil production in the period under review.
