The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, has disclosed that the country’s average daily production was 1.61 million barrels per day as of July 23.

Komolafe revealed that at the House of Representatives Special Committee’s two-day public/investigative hearing on oil theft/losses.

“As of July 23, 2024, Nigeria’s average daily production stands at 1.61mbpd,” he disclosed.

This is coming barely two weeks after the commission announced that the average daily oil production for June was 1.25mbpd.

According to Komolafe, Nigeria had continued to dominate as Africa’s largest producer of crude oil, boasting proven reserves of 37.50 billion barrels and a production capacity of approximately 2.19mbpd.

On the statutory mandates and regulatory strategies of the NUPRC, he said the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 grants the commission several statutory mandates in the areas of calibration and certification of metering systems and equipment, publication of reports and statistics on upstream operations, regulatory oversight and issuance of quality and quantity certificates for exports, and determination of fiscal prices for crude oil and condensate.

Komolafe added that the strategies of the commission aimed to optimise production, enhance regulatory oversight, and ensure accurate measurement and accounting.

He maintained that the NUPRC had prioritised improving rig availability and reducing non-productive time through unlocking heavy crude oil reserves via industry workshops.

Those initiatives, he noted, also supported new Petroleum Prospecting License awardees to achieve their first oil, among other initiatives.

The NUPRC boss admitted that Nigeria was facing significant challenges regarding crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, especially affecting terminals at Bonny, Brass, and Forcados.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited stated in September 2022 that it lost $700m every month to oil theft.

Also, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative added that Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels, valued at N16.3tn, to crude oil theft from 2005 to 2021.

In 2023, the NNPC spent N136 billion on security, repairs, and maintenance of vandalised infrastructure, per Dataphyte.

“This has prompted the commission to employ end-to-end production monitoring and a mass balance methodology to accurately account for losses and differentiate them from operational losses. These interventions have significantly reduced theft, with zero incidents reported in July 2023,” Komolafe stated.

He noted that NUPRC had introduced several innovative measures to enhance transparency and accountability.

He highlighted, “Other innovations include the Advanced Cargo Declaration Regulation that ensures no crude oil is exported without proper accounting and assigns a unique identification number to each cargo, the Upstream Metering Regulation, which mandates reliable metering systems to account for all hydrocarbon production and exports, and real-time cargo tracking and digital documentation to improve visibility and efficiency in cargo operations.”

He, therefore, reaffirmed NUPRC’s commitment to continued engagement with stakeholders to optimise Nigeria’s oil production and maintain its leadership position in Africa’s energy sector.

Our correspondent reports that crude oil thieves and illegal refiners have continued to defy government efforts, impacting the nation’s crude production daily.

Punch