Nigeria loses 600,000 bpd as crude production drops to 1.4mbpd

The Federal Government has stated that it is losing 500000-600000 barrels of oil per day. It also confirmed that the country’s daily crude production has fallen from 2.2 million barrels per day to 1.4 million per day.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Ibe Kachikwu, stated this on a television programme, Sunrise Daily, and monitored by the Nigerian Tribune on Thursday.

According to him, “with pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and increasing militancy, we are losing about 500000-600000 barrels per day.

“As a matter of fact, as at this morning (Thursday), we are down to 1.4million barrels per day production from 2.2 million barrels per day. In terms of volume and value, we are far away from where we were before.”

“There is substantial diminishing in income and government cannot say it is giving priorities to downstream sector in foreign exchange earnings to continue to import products for consumption.  You don’t give what you don’t have,” he said.

The government has also lost huge earnings from decline in crude price from above $130 per barrel in mid 2015 to less than $50 per barrel in 2016.

This has resulted into austerity, non-payment of salaries and high cost of living in the country.

[Tribune]