… Credits local security outfits for improved fight against vandalism, oil theft
By: Felix Ikpotor
The Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri has confirmed an all time surge in oil production in the country with local producers surpassing their international counterparts for the first time in about seven years.
Lokpobiri, made the confirmation at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian international Energy Summit in Abuja, saying the milestone has been driven majorly by divestments of onshore and shallow-water assets by international oil companies including Shell, ExxonMobil, and Eni to indigenous players such as Seplat, Oando, and Renaissance.
He said the transfers have reportedly injected an additional 200,000 barrels per day into national production.
“From Shell to Renaissance, ExxonMobil to Seplat, Eni to Oando, these are not just transfers of assets, they are transfers of confidence, capability, and ownership,” Lokpobiri said.
He also noted that transactions that were stalled for years before being expedited under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration with Renaissance being one of the beneficiaries of the divestment wave, has doubled its production capacity, delivering 100 per cent output growth as indigenous operators demonstrate their ability to extract value from assets previously managed by international majors.
The minister also confirms that the surge in local ownership comes as amidst battles to reverse years of production decline caused by crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and underinvestment.
Before now, national output has languished below the country’s OPEC quota for much of the past decade, costing the government billions in lost revenue.
In a bold move to reverse the trend, the Federal Government through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited ( NNPCL) had two years ago, awarded contracts for the security of all oil and gas pipelines to private security companies (PSCs) with Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, PINL, taking charge of the Eastern Corridor of the Trans Niger Pipeline which also is inline with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
The NNPCL through its Project Monitoring Office (PMO) has stated that the TNP had for over one year now remained “green” indicating an uninterrupted production output.
Industry executives however, credited improved security, regulatory reforms, and sustained implementation of the PIA enacted in 2021 after nearly two decades of legislative fireworks, which they said has created conditions for the indigenous sector’s ascendancy.
Adegbite Falade, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Producer Group stated in his address at the summit that, “Oil production in the upstream sector has been scaled up significantly, supported by increasing export pipeline availability, reduced crude oil losses and stronger indigenous contribution to production,”
He also noted that independent producers now account for more than 50 percent of national production.
He praised government efforts to rebuild investor confidence through appropriate executive orders and accelerated approval processes as also responsible for the successes.
