Insecurity in communities, others stall 1m barrels crude daily

Challenges that include insecurity, energy theft in Nigeria’s oilproducing communities, along with low investment, have stalled the production of about one million barrels of crude oil daily.

The Commission Chief Executive (CCE) of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Engr Gbenga Komolafe, gave the indication on Wednesday at a host community sensitisation workshop in Abuja.

He said, “Currently, Nigeria has the technical allowable capacity to produce about 2.5 million barrels of oil per day (bopd). However, arising from the highlighted challenges, our current production hovers around 1.5 million barrels of oil and condensate per day.

“While the commission is prioritising efforts towards increasing oil and gas production and ensuring maximum federation revenue through the optimisation of oil and gas value chain, the efforts have been constrained by myriad of challenges ranging from insecurity, low investment, de-prioritisation of funding of hydrocarbon development arising from energy transition.”

He stated that to stem the tide of sabotage and third-party interferences on oil and gas critical infrastructure, the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 stipulated the incorporation of Host Communities Development Trust (HCDT) for settlors (upstream oil and gas companies) operating in those communities to contribute three per cent of their actual annual operating expenditure of the previous financial year to fund development projects.

Komolafe further said: “So far, the commission has approved 75 HCDTs, out of which 41 have been fully incorporated by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). We have also prequalified 19 Fund Managers and commenced the process of establishing a baseline of ongoing community development projects, in preparation of ensuring the migration of such into the HCDTs.”