BY EFE MODESTUS
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has disclosed that it losses 470,000 bpd amounting to $700 million monthly due to oil theft coupled with security challenges militating against oil production in some terminals.
This is even as it has disclosed that it has assembled an array of security measure, all coordinated by digital control system to curb the ugly trend.
Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPMS), Bala Wunti, made the disclosure during a tour of the facilities of the NNPCL at the weekend, explaining that the pipelines particularly those around Bonny terminal cannot be operated due to the activities of criminals.
According to her, about 270 barrels that were supposed to be loaded in Bonny are no longer going to be loaded because of theft.
“If you’re producing 30,000 barrels a day, every month, you get 1,940 barrels. So what it means is that you can take it to 270 every four days, calculate it in a month; you will have seven cargos on a million barrels, that’s seven million barrels.
“When you multiply seven million barrels by $100 that is $700 million lost per month, adding that about 150,000 barrels expected are differed, we are not producing due to security challenges. The Shell Petroleum Company (SPDC) trunk line, TNP transnational pipeline cannot be operated and this has been the case since March the 3.”
The GGM also lamented that Forcados is not completely secure due to some challenges, but assured that the corporation was addressing it, and in two weeks it will be fixed.
Wunti also said Brass which is operated by Agip and which produces about 100,000 barrels, is also facing insecurity and vandalism.
“Illegal siphoning of crude oil from oil facilities by criminal individuals and groups, impacted negatively on revenue to all stakeholders”, lamenting that the quantity of oil delivered into the federal oil terminals in the country has been limited by the activities of pipe vandals and those she called “organized crooks.”
ADVERTISEMENTS
