Nigeria experiencing lowest oil output ever, Kyari, others lament

Hours after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) kept Nigerian crude oil output at 1.7 million barrels per day, stakeholders yesterday expressed concerns over Nigeria’s inability to increase production.

This is coming as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has strengthened its digitalisation and standardisation efforts, disclosing that the company would become fully commercial by July 1, this year.

The move, which would make the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) operate mainly on Electronic Materials Management Solution, saw the NNPC subsidiary become the only government agency to operate on ISO22301:2019 Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) and IS09001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) certification.

Speaking in Abuja at the launch of the platform, yesterday, Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, said the country was experiencing the lowest oil output ever due to activities of vandals.

According to him, the automation, standardisation and overhaul of operation were part of efforts to combat crude oil theft and ensure that the company operates an open and transparent system that could be obtainable anywhere in the world.

He said: “As we speak now, there is a massive disruption to our operations as a result of activities of vandals and criminals along our pipelines in the Niger Delta area. This has brought down production to levels as low as we have never seen. Today we are producing less than 1.5 million barrels per day, simply because some criminals decided that they should have an infectious environment. And that clearly is the biggest form of business disruption that we are facing today.

“This kind of certification of our system and process should be able to respond to this. And part of the response is to bring in the best framework possible to address this.”

Kyari noted that a series of efforts were being made towards ensuring that the country would be able to maintain crude oil production.

While the company also launched an Automated Workflow System and automation of key processes with customised applications, that include e-MMS and Q-Pulse, Kyari noted that the sector, both locally and internationally, was undergoing transition and geopolitical issues that must necessitate changes in operations.

The Group General Manager, NAPIMS, Mr. Bala Wunti, said the new development would transform the operations of the company and create a transparent system that would enable all oil companies in the upstream segment to see their system at their back end.

According to him, the move would enable the sector to operate optimally and allow NNPC to comply with best practices as obtainable across the world.

Chairman of NNPC Limited Board, Senator Margery Chuba-Okadigbo, noted that ongoing improvements in the operations of the company attest to the commitment of NNPC to transparency, accountability and performance excellence.

According to her, the automation of the materials management process would further reduce costs, ensure seamless operations, cross inventory and improve revenue generation.