The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said yesterday that production cost of a barrel of crude oil has been reduced to $23 from $78 dollars per barrel as at August 2015, representing 70.5 per cent reduction. The Group General Manager of National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a unit of NNPC, Engr. Dafe Sejebor, disclosed this during the inauguration of the anti-corruption committee of the unit.
Mr Sejejor also explained that the country has saved a minimum of $3billion per annum by cutting the cost of crude oil production, though he did not say how the oil firm had driven down the cost.
A statement issued by the Corporation’s spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, noted that NAPIMS arrived at the figure after looking at the difference between the $78 and $23 which represent the old and new cost of production in relation to the present daily average production in the country.
“If you knock down your cost of production from $78 per barrel to $23, take the difference and multiply by the average daily production, you will discover that we are saving a minimum of $3billion in the upstream for both Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Joint Ventures (JVs)”, Engr. Sejebor was quoted as saying.
The GGM added that the target was to bring the cost of production to between $17 and $19 for onshore and offshore production respectively.
On the new Petroleum Policy, Sejebor said it was necessitated by the increasing difficulty in operating the petroleum industry within the framework of the old Petroleum Act in the face of the delayed passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
He said the policy would restore investors’ confidence in the industry pending the full passage of the entire PIB by the National Assembly.
On the NAPIMS anti-corruption committee, Sajebor urged the management and staff to let the principles of accountability, integrity, honesty and transparency be their watchword.
He charged them to generate positive ideas to help tackle the challenges facing the industry and help reverse its fortunes. He admonished staff to key into the NNPC management’s zero tolerance for corruption.
It would be recalled that the GMD of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, while inaugurating the Anti-Corruption Unit at the corporate headquarters recently, had directed all the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) and Corporate Service Units (CSUs) to establish their own anti-corruption committees, which NAPIMS was the first to comply with the directive.
