The National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) grew its crude oil production capacity from 130, 000 barrels per day (bpd) to 205, 007 bpd in the year 2014, Diezani Alison- Madueke, the minister of petroleum, has said. She was speaking at the 2014 budget performance and 2015 budget defence presentation before the House of Representatives joint committee on petroleum resources-upstream, downstream and gas resources.
According to her, the ministry will expand its revenue base by enhancing gas operations, expanding retail outlets and increasing refineries’ capacity utilisation, while at the same time minimising possible losses. Other positive developments in the petroleum sector in 2014 were the sustenance of crude oil production at an average of over 2.24 million barrels per day in spite of all the attendant challenges of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism; growing of NPDC into a mid-size exploration and production company and major gas supplier to the domestic market, with over 600 million standard cubic feet of gas per day supplied through Oredo, Ughelli and Utorogu gas plants.
“The ministry and its parastatals are focused on mitigating the effects of lower crude oil prices by directing efforts and investments towards the diversification of oil revenue base in 2015 and beyond,” the petroleum minister stressed, while explaining further that “with all hands on deck and the support of the National Assembly, the industry performed well in 2014.” Also listed among industry achievements in the year (2014) are the enhancement of gas infrastructure through the addition of new central processing facilities along critical gas pipelines, restructuring of the upstream gas sector by increasing the delivery price, and transmission of gas with a view to boosting investment in the sector.
Others are the petroleum ministry’s collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the settlement of outstanding indebtedness of the power sector to upstream gas suppliers in order to ensure continuity of supply; boosting of gas supply to power generation companies with the current ability to support 5, 800 meagwatts of generating capacity, and with all completed power plants connected to permanent gas supply lines.
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