NNPC Limited and echoes of 2007 - By Magnus onyibe

NNPC records 1.8mbpd crude oil production

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says it has achieved 1.8 million barrels per day crude production following continuous dislodgement of pipeline vandals and crude oil thieves.

Mr Lawal Musa, Chief Production War Room Officer, NNPC Ltd., said this on Thursday in Abuja during a briefing on NNPC Ltd. production.

Musa, who is also the Senior Business Advisor to Malam Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), NNPC Ltd., said that the achievement was based on the collaboration between the leadership of NNPC, stakeholders and security agencies.

“We achieved this because of the clear mandate by President Bola Tinubu to ramp up crude oil production in the country,” Musa said.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) and its partners have revved up crude oil and gas production to 1.8million barrels per day (mbpd) and 7.4billion standard cubic feet (bscf).

The company which announced this at a press briefing on Thursday said the feat was achieved in compliance with the mandate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Speaking on the development, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mele Kyari, congratulated the Production War Room Team that anchored the production recovery process.

“The team has done a great job in driving this project of not just production recovery but also escalating production to expected levels that are in the short and long terms, acceptable to our shareholders based on the mandates that we have from the President, the Honourable Minister, and the Board,” Kyari explained.

Giving details of the efforts of the Production War Room, the Chief War Room Coordinator and Senior Business Adviser to the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lawal Musa, disclosed that the feat was achieved through the collaborative efforts of Joint Venture and Production Sharing Contract partners, the Office of the National Security Adviser, as well as government and private security agencies.

He said the interventions that led to the recovery of production cut across every segment of the production chain with security agencies closely monitoring the pipelines.

He stressed that when the Production War Room team was inaugurated on the 25th of June 2024, production was at 1.430mbpd, but the team swung into action, culminating into it sustaining the production recovery to 1.7mbpd in August and hitting the current 1.808mbpd in November.

“We are confident that with this same momentum and with the active collaboration of all stakeholders, especially on the security front, we can see the possibility of getting to 2mbpd by the end of the year,” he stated.

Also speaking on the development, Chairman of the NNPC Ltd. Board of Directors, Chief Pius Akinyelure, who also congratulated the team, said he was happy to be part of the production recovery process, adding: “today, I will leave this place with my heart full of joy”.

He charged the Company’s Management to come up with a cashflow projection based on the new production figures to facilitate planning, stressing that he was looking forward to further production increase to 3mbpd.

On his part, the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, expressed satisfaction with the performance of the team and pledged the Federal Government’s support for the company to do more.