The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director (GMD) Dr. Maikanti Baru on Monday announced that the corporation could not sustain its last week record of 2.2million barrel per day (mbd) owing to the yesterday’s (Monday) attack on the Trans Niger Pipeline in Ogoniland which culminated in the loss of 150,000barrel.
Asked whether the NNPC was able to sustain its last week production feat, he said “Unfortunately, we have not been able to sustain it because of challenges. As I am talking to you this morning the Trans Niger pipeline has been breached in Ogoniland and that is 150,000 barrel per of oil has been locked up day. That has been fairly an issue in that area. And We hope we can continue at that level.”
He spoke to reporters after the opening ceremony of the “Extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) in Abuja.
In his opening remarks, the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, urged the African oil producing countries to track the funding of terrorists with oil funds.
He noted that there was a global threat to peace from the funding of terrorist groups and other sources of violence and conflicts that have become a threat to the security and safety of the member states.
Urging the member state to build up a data base that will track every molecule of oil produced in the region, he noted that the measure will also bring about accountability, transparency and global cooperation.
His words: “Permit me to mention a matter of immediate concern. Around the world today, we are increasingly seeing crude oil, often of untraceable origins, funding the activities of terrorist groups and other purveyors of violence and conflicts.
“Many of these groups constitute a threat or a potential threat to the safety and security in member of our member states. APPO reforms, therefore, need to build the capacity to maintain a reliable statistical database and to deploy technology to track every molecule of crude oil extracted from our territories.
“This is an important step, not only for global security but also for fiscal transparency, accountability and of course, the required levels of international collaboration and cooperation that an organisation like APPO is well-placed to muster.”
He said that the session is holding when the continent and the rest of the world are witnessing volatility in the petroleum market, and by implications, in their local economies.
According to him, the centrality of the hydrocarbon industry to the economies of the continent is self-evident, it is reflected in the revenue inflows that accounts for a significant percentage of their budget.
This, said the Acting President, has become one of the, if not the primary sub-structure upon which economic planning is based and on which economic development and growth are generated.
He added that “Over the last three years or so, oil producing countries across the world have experienced the full impact of the drop in oil prices with significant negative impact on government revenues and budgets and of the value of national currencies.
“This volatility has triggered much soul-searching and governments are compelled to ask themselves difficult but necessary questions about the present and the future. Besides, the reality of the future, where demands for and revenues from oil drop sharply is already upon us; and almost every major oil importing country today has embarked on an aggressive non-fossil fuel alternative programme.
“China, Japan and some Scandinavian states have already set dates within the next 10 to 15 years, to produce and use only electric vehicles. The zero oil days are clearly around the corner and I think the point has been very eloquently made by kachikwu.”
He explained that African’s government and export bases are in dire need of diversification from the inimical dependence on natural resources that they enjoyed in the past.
Continuing, he said that “But also the paradox is inescapable that we need oil to get out of our dependency of oil. The capacity to add value to the crude oil that we extract is crucial.
“The whole range of the petrochemical enterprise remains a largely untapped option for growing industrial opportunities, creating jobs and increasing our chances of delivering on our national and continental commitment to inclusive growth.
“We must leverage our resources to fund and to support our ambition to create economies fit and ready for the 21st century.
“In Nigeria, we are pursuing series of reforms along these lines, combining executive and legislative actions to create a sector that is more efficient, more transparent and more attractive to domestic and foreign investors.
“We are also making progress in fine-tuning and implementing our local content policies, and that I must say is one area that is critical to the future of APPO. Indeed, that is one of the reasons why APPO was created, to provide a platform that would support and empower African countries to build and exploit local capacity and technology to the fullest.”
Osinbajo announced that from February 2018, Nigeria would host annually, a world class international petroleum summit in Abuja.
Speaking, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said that one of the challenges facing the (APPO) is the need to reform and reorganise to giving it a bite.
The minister told his members that the oil world has changed and brought about a decrease in price to about 40% of what it was five years ago.
So most countries that produce oil, he said, have lost substantial revenue and have lost even the capacity to do some of the huge developmental programme that they are known for.
Kachikwu added that = market is becoming very distraught and most regional block producers are beginning to ring-fence specific markets.
He submitted that America has pulled out of the large market of oil importer while Asian and the Gulf countries are protecting their markets.
He charged the APPO members to consider ways of enlarging and protecting the African market to give its players the first opportunity to utilise the market.
Kachikwu said: “the Asian, the Gulf countries ensuring that their markets are protected. With America pulling out of the larger market as a major importer of oil, and the America first policy, it is becoming absolutely imperative for member countries of this organization, we need to begin to look at the African market and how they can enlarge it, expand it, make it robust and yet protect it, so that those of us who play in that market would be able to have the first opportunity to utilize that market.”
