Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has declared a state of emergency on crude oil production.
Kyari spoke on Tuesday in a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 23rd edition of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG Energy Week) in Abuja.
He said war has been declared on the challenges affecting Nigeria’s crude oil production.
“We have decided to stop the debate. We have declared war on the challenges affecting our crude oil production,” Kyari said.
“War means war. We have the right tools. We know what to fight. We know what we have to do at the level of assets. We have engaged our partners. And we will work together to improve the situation.”
He said a detailed asset analysis showed Nigeria could easily produce two million barrels of crude oil per day without deploying new rigs, but the primary obstacle is the inability of industry players to act promptly.
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Kyari said the war will enable NNPC and its partners to swiftly remove all identified obstacles to efficient production, including delays in procurement processes, which have become a challenge in the industry.
Regarding medium to long-term measures to boost and sustain production, Kyari said NNPC will replace all the old crude oil pipelines built over four decades ago.
He said the corporation will also introduce a rig-sharing programme with its partners to ensure that production rigs stay in the country for between four and five years which is the standard practice in most climes.
The NNPC GCEO called on all players in the industry to collaborate towards reducing the cost of production and boosting production to target levels.
Kyari expressed the company’s commitment to investing in critical midstream gas infrastructure such as the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipelines to boost domestic gas production and supply for power generation, industrial development and economic prosperity of the country.
He said NNPC has since keyed into the presidential compressed natural gas (CNG) drive, and, in collaboration with partners like NIPCO Gas, has constructed several CNG stations.
Kyari added that 12 of these stations will be inaugurated on Thursday in Lagos and Abuja.