Nigeria’s crude oil production witnessed the second consecutive monthly decline since the beginning of this year, as it dropped to 1.231 million barrels per day in March, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries stated on Thursday.
OPEC disclosed this in its latest Monthly Oil Market Report
for April 2024, stating that crude oil production details which it got through
direct communication from Nigeria showed that the country pumped less oil in
March when compared to what was produced in February.
Data from the report indicated that Nigeria produced 1.322
million barrels per day of crude in February this year, but this dropped to
1.231mbpd in March, representing a plunge of 91mbpd.
The report further stated that the country had produced
1.427mbpd of crude in January, but this was not sustained in February as it
dropped in that month, while the southward oil production continued in March.
OPEC data, however, showed that the country’s average crude
oil production in the first quarter of 2024 was 1.327mbpd, higher than the
1.313mbpd average oil production in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Nigeria’s first quarter oil output in 2024 was also higher
than the 1.201mbpd average production in the third quarter of last year.
Oil theft and pipeline vandalism have dealt severe blows on
Nigeria’s oil production, limiting the country’s output and making it fall
below the volume approved for Nigeria by OPEC.
The PUNCH, for instance, reported on Wednesday that the
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited recorded 155 oil theft incidents in
one week.
The report that stated the company revealed that during the
review period, 53 illegal pipeline connections and 36 illegal refineries were
uncovered in the Niger Delta.
“Between March 30 and April 5, 2024, a total of 155
incidents were recorded across several locations in the Niger Delta region from
various incident sources,” the firm stated.
In a summary of the incidents, NNPCL stated that it recorded
53 illegal connections, discovered 36 illegal refineries and 32 wooden fibre
boats, identified 14 pipeline vandalism cases, eight vessel infractions and
four oil spills, as well as made seven vehicle and one vessel arrests.
Some of the incident sources include the Nigeria Agip Oil
Company, Tantita Security Services Ltd, NNPCL Command and Control Centre, Shell
Petroleum Development Company, NNPCL 18 Operating Ltd, among others.
Providing additional details, the company said, “In the past
week, 32 wooden boats conveying stolen crude and illegally refined products
were seized and confiscated in Rivers and Delta states.
“On land, seven vehicles loaded with stolen crude were
arrested in Imo, Delta and Rivers states. 53 illegal connections were uncovered
between March 30 and April 5, 2024 in Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta states.
“14 cases of vandalism were also recorded in Rivers, Bayelsa
and Delta states, while illegal storage sites where stolen crude and illegally
refined products are kept were uncovered in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers and
Delta states.”
The national oil company also stated there were clusters of
illegal refineries in Abia State, as activities of oil thieves had devastated
the effected environments in the state.
It said 36 clusters of the illegal refineries were
discovered in the past week across several locations in Rivers and Abia states.
“Four cases of oil spills due to activities of vandals were
recorded in the past week,” NNPCL stated, adding that in Rivers State, oil
leaks from a wellhead is destroying aquatic lives.
NNPCL stated that 38 suspects were arrested during the week
under review, stressing that the national oil company would not back down on
the war against crude oil theft until the menace is eradicated.
Nigeria has been losing trillions of naira to crude oil
theft, a development that has made some international oil companies to divest
from onshore to deep offshore oil fields, while others have exited the country.
In November 2023, for instance, The PUNCH reported that the
Federal Government revealed that more than N4.3tn worth of crude oil was stolen
in 7,143 pipeline vandalism cases within a period of five years.
The report stated that the government disclosed this at the
Nigeria International Pipeline Technology and Security Conference in Abuja,
with the theme, ‘Bolstering Regulations, Technology and Security for Growth.’
The conference was organised by the Pipeline Professionals Association of
Nigeria.
In a presentation at the conference by the Nigeria
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a Federal Government agency, the
organisation revealed that oil theft and losses in Nigeria had become a
national emergency.
The Executive Secretary, NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, said oil
theft was an emergency that posed serious threat to oil exploration and
exploitation with huge negative consequences on economic growth, business
prospects and profit earnings by oil companies.
Providing data from the agency’s reports to back his claims,
he said, “NEITI disclosed that in the last five years, 2017 to 2021, Nigeria
recorded 7,143 cases of pipeline breakages and deliberate vandalism resulting
in crude theft and product losses of 208.639 million barrels valued at $12.74m
or N4.325tn.
“NEITI reports also disclosed that during the same period
Nigeria spent N471.493bn to either repair or maintain pipelines.”
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