• Government down by 1.1 million barrels per day
• Suffers 1,600 pipelines attacks in six months
• Unveils strategy for improved power supply

Nigeria will require additional 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) between now and December to meet its 2016 budget projections of 2.2 million barrels daily, said Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu.

The 2016 N6.1trillion national budget, which is expected to be funded mainly from oil revenues, is already pegged on a deficit of N2.2trillion, leaving government struggling for a way out, a situation further compounded by crash in oil prices and vandalisation of pipelines.

Kachikwu, who made the disclosure, yesterday, at the yearly conference of the National Association of Energy Correspondents in Lagos, said due to vandalism, the country was experiencing a shortfall of 700,000bpd, representing 29 per cent decline in output.

The revelation comes as the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, said incessant attacks on pipelines have forced the Federal Government to diversify the nation’s power output, with renewable alternative as bedrock.

He said government is aggressively pursuing the utilisation of hydro and other sources of energy, to tackle epileptic supply.

According to Kachikwu, about 850 million metric standard cubic feet/day (mmscfd) of gas production was being shut in due to pipeline vandalism, with 1,600 incidents of pipelines attacks recorded between January and June this year. These, he said, caused a loss of 560,000 barrels to refineries and 109 million litres of petroleum products.

He added that Nigeria recorded over 3,000 incidents of pipeline vandalism in 2015, resulting in the loss of 643 million litres of petroleum products, valued at N51.28 billion.