Energy
Nigeria loses N10.7bn daily to pipeline vandalism
…as crude production declines by 60%
By ODUNEWU SEGUN
FOLLOWING the declaration of force majeures on Nigeria’s oil grades, more than 700,000 barrels per day of production have been affected, denying the country of about N10.7bn in revenue, National Daily has gathered.
Crude oil production which has fallen from an average of 2.2 million bpd to as low as 1.3 million bpd is primarily due to the destruction of oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta region.
According to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the price of crude that used to be about $120 is at about $42 per barrel today, costing the Federal Government and States about 50 per cent of their income.
“As if that wasn’t bad enough, the militancy itself has brought down production from an average of 2.2 million barrels to about 1.4 million barrels today. And if I discount what I’m seeing here today, it probably is about 1.3 million barrels. So, what this means is that when you take the cumulative effect of both pricing and militancy, we are down to more than 60 per cent drop in the income of this country.”
Meanwhile, the country lost a total sum of $30bn in oil revenue between 2014 and 2015 as a result of the drop in crude oil prices, the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, Mr. Segun Awolowo, has said.
He gave the figure the recently while speaking at the graduation ceremony of the third batch of the NEPC zero-to-export capacity-building programme. The NEPC boss said while the country earned about $70bn in crude oil in 2014, the amount earned dropped by $30bn in 2015 to $40bn.
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He said as a result of the volatile nature of the oil market, the country could no longer depend on such commodity, hence, the need to groom a new crop of non-oil exporters that would assist in diversifying the economy.
“Recent developments on global commodities market have triggered a wake-up call on the need for us to accelerate the diversification of our economy, moving away from an over-dependence on oil as our main source of revenue.
Awolowo said in a bid to encourage the new set of exporters, NEPC, in collaboration with Providus Bank Plc, had secured an N100m financing facility for the graduands.
The Executive Director, Providus Bank Plc, Mr. Kingsley Aigbokhaevbo, said the bank would continue to support the diversification strategy of the Federal Government.
He said the N100m facility would be made available to the new exporters, adding that this would enable them to achieve their objective of making their first exports in October this year.