Nigeria’s exact crude oil production volume unknown – NEITI

Arakunle Kayode

According to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, no one knows the exact volume of crude oil generated in Nigeria, especially in deep offshore fields.

Orji Ogbonnaya-Orji, NEITI’s Executive Secretary, revealed this during a courtesy call on Mansur Liman, Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, in Abuja.

He said this is because of the lack of meters at wellheads and the capacity to track deep offshore fields that the exact amount of crude oil produced in Nigeria remains unknown.

The NEITI’s director stated that his agency had recommended that meters be installed on oil wellheads to measure the volume of crude oil produced across the country in all of its oil and gas audit reports.

Ogbonnaya-Orji said “We don’t have the capacity to go deep shores to know how much we’re producing, as it is currently, it is very difficult for any Nigerian to determine how much we are making.

“This is one of the issues that NEITI is addressing. Because if you do not know how much you are producing how would you know how much you are expected to earn?”

He said “The companies that go deep shore and are interested in offshore exploration are not indigenous companies in Nigerian and they cannot protect the country’s interests as well, but we have to give credit to those companies; they are doing an excellent job here, and without them, the oil industry does not exist.”

The NEITI helmsman described his visit FRCN as a homecoming, having worked there as a journalist for many years.