…… says unparallel strategy to curb oil theft, sabotage topnotch
A dedicated player in the oil and gas industry, Solomon Oseagah has applauded the efforts of President Bola Tinubu and the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd, Mr. Mele Kyari for their initiatives towards increasing oil production from 900,000 barrels to over 1.5million barrels per day.
Mr. Solomon while speaking over the weekend during an interview with LEADING REPORTERS stated that the Mele Kyari’s move to combat oil theft through the use of the command and control centre has ensured the arrest of over 1,000 oil thieves currently awaiting judicial proceedings.
He explained that security is the main factor that helps towards increasing production stressing that in 2022 production dropped to 900,000 per barrel due to theft and vandalism adding that it was a time where oil majors were selling their assets because they could not deal with the loss due to vandalism that they were facing.
“The government has put in measures to buffer security in oil producing regions and also we have the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited saying that they have set up command and centers where they can track and monitor the our oil assets in real-time, aside the security there are other factors that has contributed to increase in production.”
He also acknowledged that significant reforms were implemented by the GCEO Mele Kyari which aimed at transforming the petroleum sector alluding that this is largely good news because more production means Nigeria can make more revenue their and export adding that the country can have more supply of FX to buffer our currency, buffer their reserve, also in time be able to fund the budget conveniently without large deficit.
“If you look at Seplat energy they said they will double their production to 120,000 barrels per in in the next six month after the acquired Exxon energy and we are looking at Oando that is looking at increasing their production to 100,000 barrels per day from 40,000 barrels per day over the next couple of years after some acquisition from international players.”
Solomon mentioned that three days ago the upstream leadership seek to approach OPEC for a Quota Increase with His relationship with members of European Agency for Energy Security in Vienna-Austria, hence all hands must be on deck to achieve these feat for the benefit of the country.