The federal government of Nigeria is planning to implement a system to track all crude oil vessels from their point of origin to their final destinations across the globe. The objective is to monitor and ensure accurate accountability of the country’s crude oil production. According to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, the project is expected to be completed within six months, or a hundred and eighty days.
Heineken Lokpobiri announced during a media briefing in Abuja on Friday that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved $21 million for the installation of meters at all 187 crude oil flow stations in the Niger Delta.
According to the minister, “One of the key approvals of the Federal Executive Council that held on Wednesday has to do with awarding a contract of metering of about 187 flow stations across the Niger Delta region of Nigeria for the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
“NUPRC is the apex regulatory agency for the Nigerian oil and gas upstream sector. And as part of our steps to ensure that we have proper accountability, the Federal Executive Council approved the metering of all our production and we have a hundred and eighty-seven flow stations in the country littered across the Niger Delta area.
“There was a contract awarded for us to meter all flow stations that will give us a proper account of what we produce and what we export. It is a major development that has never happened in this country.”
The minister also added that in another memo approved by FEC for “advance cargo”, “The second memo that was approved by council has to do with what we call advance cargo which means you award a contract to a company that will provide the technology within the same period (180 days) to enable us know from the point of loading of every cargo of crude oil that is loaded in Nigeria up to the point of destination.”
