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Uche Usim, Abuja
The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru has put the country’s daily oil production 2.32million barrel per day.
Baru disclosed this on Tuesday when a delegation of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by its President Mr Chris Isiguzo, visited his office in Abuja.
“Since we came in July 2016, we are focused on increasing production of oil and gas as well as condensates.
“At some point, our national combined production was about a million barrels; But I am happy that as at the end of 2018, we have moved on average last year, to about 2.1 million barrels.
“As I am speaking, this morning, I looked at our production figures, combined oil and condensates we are pushing 2.32 million barrels a day,” he said.
According to him, the stability and ability to push production has come as a consequence of several factors, both internally, externally and also with the help of the media.
Commenting on the gas sector, he said that the Corporation had also pushed from a low level of about 450 million standard cubic feet per day for the domestic alone and currently hovering at about 1.5 billion SCF per day of gas.
Internally, it’s subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), had pushed its production on the equity side, from a low figure of 65,000 barrels per day in 2016 to over 166,000 barrels per day equity. Overall with the production of the NPDC, we are able to maintain it at close to 300,000 barrels per day. It is quite a significant boost,” he added.
The GMD further said that NPDC, had become the main supplier of gas for the power sector, with over 800 million SCF per day required to boost the production of power in the country.
” Currently, the power that we enjoy has about 80 per cent input from gas-driven thermal power plants.
“Our drive for transparency has also produced a lot of fruits. We have been able to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), into the oil and gas industry, and in 2017 alone, we have attracted about $3.6 billion.
“In 2018, we were up by three billion dollars, at the moment, some of our officers are in London, where they are negotiating about $7 billion as FDI for the oil and gas sector.
“In terms of crude oil cost of production, it has significantly improved from the 27 dollars per barrel in our Joint Venture operations, and it has come down to 22 dollars per barrel.
