FG: Full Restoration of Crude Oil Production Underway

•Sylva eyes 3 million bpd output 

•Despite pressure on Nigeria to cut fossils, US becomes net exporter of crude

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has said that the federal government was working to ensure that all local and international oil companies return to full capacity production of crude oil in the country.

Speaking while receiving  the new Managing Director of Eni SpA, in his office, in Abuja, Sylva again restated the government’s readiness to continue to improve security along the tracks of the major crude oil pipelines and block every leakage through which crude oil is stolen by oil thieves and pipeline vandals.

A statement by the Senior Adviser, Media, to the minister, Horatius Egua, stated that oil majors in the country drastically cut down on crude oil production due to the massive vandalism of pipelines and theft of crude oil in the Niger Delta region by those he described as criminal elements.

The decisions of the oil companies, the statement noted, have affected the volume of daily crude production which has led to revenue losses for the country.

It added that in the last few months, the improved security surveillance along the major crude oil has however helped to improve crude oil productions from a paltry 900,000 barrels per day to between 1.4 million and 1.6 million barrels per day.

“I am happy to hear from you (Eni) that you have increased your crude oil production to 15,000 barrels per day as a result of the efforts of the government in protecting the pipelines in the region. I assure you that this trend will continue,” the minister was quoted as saying.

Sylva added that the desire of the federal government is to see all the oil majors in the country return to their full production capacity to boost revenue for the government and also to help the country meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) obligations.

“We will continue to work to bring stability and build confidence for everyone to return to the field to produce their maximum capacity,” the minister added.

By this effort, the federal government, the minister noted, is targeting full production capacity of up to 3 million daily crude oil production.

Head of Sub-Saharan Africa Region of Eni SpA Mr Mario Bello, in his brief remarks during the visit, lauded the renewed attempt by the federal government in restoring sanity along the major crude oil pipelines in the Niger Delta.

He stated that this has enabled the company increase crude oil production from a near zero production level to about 15,000 barrels per day in the last one month.

 “We are happy that the security situation is improving and we will be willing to be back fully,” Bello said, adding that as at last month, the company complained to the minister over  the vandalism and theft of products. He noted that as of this month, the situation has improved.

“At a point we were producing almost nothing but today, with the improved security situation along the pipelines, we are able to produce and export about 15,000 barrels of crude oil and if this trend continues, we will be able to reach our 30,000 barrels crude oil production,” he told Sylva during the visit.

Bello said with the renewed confidence the company has in the security of the crude oil pipelines, Eni was willing to reopen its planned investments in the gas and power sector, noting that the company was happy with the support from the government in terms of business cooperation.  

Meanwhile, despite mounting pressure on Nigeria and other African countries to cut emissions, the United States is set to become a global crude oil exporting power.

Although in the last few years, the country has ramped up production, but exports have not exceeded its imports since World War II. That could change next year, Reuters reported.

Sales of US crude to other nations are now a record 3.4 million barrels per day, with exports of about 3 million bpd of refined products like gasoline and diesel fuel. The United States is also the leading Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exporter, where growth is expected to soar in coming years.

But the United States consumes 20 million barrels of crude a day, the most in the world, and its output has never exceeded 13 million bpd. Until recently, the idea that it would be anything but a big crude importer was folly, the report added.

The United States already produces more oil than any other country in the world including Saudi Arabia and Russia.

It became the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas during the first half of 2022, surpassing Qatar and Australia, on the back of demand from Europe and surging prices, Reuters said.

In recent months, the United States has sent delegations to Nigeria, including in September when the country’s Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, visited the country to find ways of curbing the production of hydrocarbons and embracing renewable energy.