Stories by Chineme Okafor in Abuja
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has expressed concern that Nigeria’s oil production has been on a steady decline since 2012.
According to NEITI, the sharpest decline within these periods were recorded in 2015 and 2016.
NEITI equally stated in its 2016 audit report of the country’s oil and gas industry that lifting of oil from Nigeria within the period had declined, just as oil revenue did.
“The total crude oil production in 2016 was 659,137 million barrels (mbbls) which is less than 2015 production figure of 776,668mbbls by 117,531mbbl representing a 15.13 per cent drop.
“There has been a steady decline from 2012 to 2016, with the sharpest drop occurring in 2015 and 2016. Similarly, total crude oil lifting in 2016 dropped by 112,280mbbls from 780,429mbbls in 2015 to 668,148mbbls in 2016, representing a 14.39 per cent decrease,” said NEITI, which asked the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to go after a number of oil companies owing Nigeria revenue in form of royalty and fines on gas flaring amongst others.
Continuing, it said: “After surviving the slump in the global oil market in 2008 and 2009, Nigeria’s oil sector rebounded in 2010 with a 49 per cent increase in total financial flows to $44.94 billion, followed by the peak of $68.44 billion in 2011.
“However, flows from the sector have been trending downward since that peak year with $62.94 billion generated in 2012, $58.08 billion in 2013, $54.56 billion in 2014, and $24.79 billion in 2015. Similarly, oil production has been on steady decline with 866 million barrels produced in 2012; 800 million barrels in 2013; 798 million barrels in 2014; 776 million barrels in 2015; and 659 million barrels in 2016.
According to NEITI: “Yearly average price of crude oil per barrel was $43.73 in 2016 as against $52.5 in 2015. Total oil production in 2016 was 659 million barrels as against 776 million barrels produced in 2015, a fall of 15 per cent.
“Losses due to crude oil theft and sabotage rose from 27 million barrels in 2015 to 101 million barrels in 2016, an increase of 274 per cent. This was aside losses due to deferment, which in 2016 was put at 144 million barrels which also went up by 65 per cent when compared to the 87.5 million barrels in 2015.”
It explained that Nigeria’s oil industry experienced peculiar challenges in 2016 which included the bombing of the under-water 48-inch Forcados oil loading and export pipeline.
“This incident occurred in February 2016 and the line remained in-operational for seven months. Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) declared force majeure on lifting from Forcados on 21st February 2016.
Companies injecting into the Forcados Terminal such as SEPLAT, Pan Ocean, Mid-Western, Energia, Platform, Pillar, Waltersmith, and Excel shut down production for over 147 days.
“In addition, SPDC declared force majeure on the Bonny Terminal due to a leak in Nembe Creek Pipeline between May and July 2016 while NAOC declared force majeure on the Brass Terminal between July and August 2016.
“Similarly, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited declared Force Majeure twice between May and June and July and October 2016. This was due to a drilling process disruption and damage to the QIT loading system. MPN’s total production within the four-month period was 4,616,825bbls, which is less than half of what was produced in each month previously as reflected in DPR reconciled sign-off records,” NEITI stated.
It indicated that losses arising from crude oil theft and sabotage continued in 2016 in the upstream and downstream, and that the loss from crude theft was 19,872,498.78bbls, while loss from sabotage was 81,180,605bbls.
“These losses are valued at $869.02 million and $3.55 billion respectively. The crude price ($43.73) used for estimate was computed using the actual monthly sales and quantity figures for 2016,” it explained.
NEITI stated that 2,589 pipeline breaks were recorded in 2016, and subsequently urged the DPR follow up and confirm recovery of outstanding payment of $3.632 million being payment that should have accrued to Nigeria from fines on gas flaring; $19,988,735.16 from the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), ND Western and Frontier as payment for gas royalty, as well as outstanding payment of $46.674 million for oil royalty from NPDC; Dubric Oil; Newcross E&P; and Platform.
