The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries stated on Thursday, disclosed that Nigeria’s crude oil production has declined in the second consecutive month since the beginning of 2024, as it dropped to 1.231 million barrels per day in March.
According to the PUNCH, OPEC revealed this in its latest Monthly Oil Market Report for April 2024, adding that crude oil production details which it got through direct communication from Nigeria showed that the country pumped less oil in March when compared to what was produced in February.
The report showed that Nigeria produced 1.322 million barrels per day of crude in February 2024, but this dropped to 1.231mbpd in March, representing a plunge of 91mbpd.
It went further that the country had produced 1.427mbpd of crude in January, but this was not sustained in February as it dropped in that month, while the southward oil production continued in March.
OPEC data showed that the country’s average crude oil production in the first quarter of 2024 was 1.327mbpd, higher than the 1.313mbpd average oil production in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Nigeria’s first quarter oil output in 2024 was also higher than the 1.201mbpd average production in the third quarter of last year.
Oil theft and pipeline vandalism are the challenges confronting Nigeria’s oil production, limiting the country’s output and making it fall below the volume approved for Nigeria by OPEC.
The PUNCH on Wednesday, reported that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited recorded 155 oil theft incidents in one week.
The report said the company disclosed that during the review period, 53 illegal pipeline connections and 36 illegal refineries were uncovered in the Niger Delta.
“Between March 30 and April 5, 2024, a total of 155 incidents were recorded across several locations in the Niger Delta region from various incident sources,” the firm stated.
Summarizing the incidents, NNPCL noted that it recorded 53 illegal connections, discovered 36 illegal refineries and 32 wooden fibre boats, identified 14 pipeline vandalism cases, eight vessel infractions and four oil spills, as well as made seven vehicle and one vessel arrests.
Some of the incident sources include the Nigeria Agip Oil Company, Tantita Security Services Ltd, NNPCL Command and Control Centre, Shell Petroleum Development Company, NNPCL 18 Operating Ltd, among others.
While giving additional details, the company said, “In the past week, 32 wooden boats conveying stolen crude and illegally refined products were seized and confiscated in Rivers and Delta states.
“On land, seven vehicles loaded with stolen crude were arrested in Imo, Delta and Rivers states. 53 illegal connections were uncovered between March 30 and April 5, 2024 in Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta states.
“14 cases of vandalism were also recorded in Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states, while illegal storage sites where stolen crude and illegally refined products are kept were uncovered in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta states.”
Also, the national oil company said there were clusters of illegal refineries in Abia State, as activities of oil thieves had devastated the affected environments in the state.
It said 36 clusters of the illegal refineries were uncovered in the past week across several locations in Rivers and Abia states.
“Four cases of oil spills due to activities of vandals were recorded in the past week,” NNPCL stated, adding that in Rivers State, oil leaks from a wellhead are destroying aquatic lives.
NNPCL noted that at least 38 suspects were arrested during the week under review, stating that the national oil company would give up on the war against crude oil theft until the menace is eradicated.
Nigeria has been losing trillions of naira to crude oil theft, a development that has made some international oil companies divest from onshore to deep offshore oil fields, while others have exited the country.
In November 2023, for instance, The PUNCH reported that the Federal Government revealed that more than N4.3tn worth of crude oil was stolen in 7,143 pipeline vandalism cases within a period of five years.
The report said that the government disclosed this at the Nigeria International Pipeline Technology and Security Conference in Abuja, with the theme, ‘Bolstering Regulations, Technology and Security for Growth.’ The conference was organised by the Pipeline Professionals Association of Nigeria.
In a presentation at the conference by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a Federal Government agency, the organisation revealed that oil theft and losses in Nigeria had become a national emergency.
The Executive Secretary, NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, explained that oil theft was an emergency that posed serious threat to oil exploration and exploitation with huge negative consequences on economic growth, business prospects and profit earnings by oil companies.
Orji provided data from the agency’s reports to back his claims, noting, “NEITI disclosed that in the last five years, 2017 to 2021, Nigeria recorded 7,143 cases of pipeline breakages and deliberate vandalism resulting in crude theft and product losses of 208.639 million barrels valued at $12.74m or N4.325tn.
“NEITI reports also disclosed that during the same period Nigeria spent N471.493bn to either repair or maintain pipelines.”
