Nigeria’s oil production increased to 1.67 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Limited, up from the 1.8 million bpd quota set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The recovery of production from 1.08 million bpd in July 2022 to 1.67 million bpd was ensured, according to Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer of NNPC, by the rectangular security approach that included NNPC and partners regulators, government security operators, and the communities, supported by technology adoption.
He revealed this at a gathering of oil and gas industry stakeholders led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about the difficulties caused by crude oil theft and other losses to the oil and gas sector.
The deployment of the Detect, Deter, Destroy, and Recover (3D) strategy; the creation of the Central Command and Control Centre for efficient monitoring and coordination; the launch of the Whistle-Blowers Portal and the Crude Oil Validation Portal; the use of some of the best-in-class surveillance tools; and technology, according to Kyari, who was represented by Bala Wunti, chief upstream investment officer, NNPC.
According to Kyari, bringing in previously isolated private security contractors from the host communities has been a crucial part of the collaboration.
“Massive discoveries of illegal connections and interception of vessels ferrying stolen crude oil have been made,” he said. “Security contractors’ in-depth knowledge of the terrain and modus operandi of the criminals.”
Facilities that had been closed had been reopened as a result of the ongoing, sustained efforts, and the injection of crude oil into significant trunklines for evacuation to the terminals was stepped up.
According to Kyari, as the fight to rid Nigeria of the menace of crude oil theft continues to gain traction, the oil and gas industry is ready to reposition itself for a sustainable growth trajectory.
Changing the narrative and uniting all industry stakeholders to fight a common foe required a lot of work, he added.
Theft of crude oil and pipeline vandalism, which caused production to stop, have been Nigeria’s biggest setbacks. In August and September of last year, the nation’s oil production fell below one million barrels per day. Due to this, the contribution of foreign exchange earnings from the export of crude oil had decreased from 90% when production was high to 78.5% as of the third quarter of 2022.
On August 13, 2023, Nigeria’s state oil company hired Tantita Securities Service, a private security firm owned by Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), for pipeline surveillance in an effort to control the situation.
To provide oversight of all the nation’s oil and gas assets in the Niger Delta, the NNPC and the security agencies set up a control center. The Central Coordination, Data Integration, and Activation Control Room is the surveillance system.
