The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has described the recent uptick in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly known as cooking gas, as temporary.
The company assured consumers across the country that the current situation is temporary, expressing confidence that the price of cooking gas will stabilise and return to normal levels in the coming days.
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Bashir Ojulari, gave the assurance in Lagos, while speaking to State House correspondents after an audience with President Bola Tinubu on Sunday in Lagos State, Nigeria.
“It is relatively artificial because for the period of the strike, quiet movement and loading were delayed for about two to three days and because of that, you see that impact and as things return to normal it takes some time for distribution to fully return and … with that delay, some of the people that have existing resources in reserves had to put up the price.
“My expectations are that now that things are back to normal, prices should return to what they were before the strike,” Ojulari said.
The NNPCL GCEO added that the recent industrial action resulted in a substantial loss of output, with more than 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production deferred.
He stressed that gas production was also affected, leading to disruptions in power generation amounting to about 1.2 megawatts, which were directly impacted by the strike.
“In this particular case, we actually lost significant production of over 200,000 bpd. We also have Gas production that was impacted, and we also have power generation that was impacted by about 1.2mega megawatts of power that was affected by that strike.
“I think I’m very pleased that the Federal Government through the leadership of Minister of Labour and full support of NSA, we were able to put together everyone into a dialogue and brought everybody to the table and now there has been a communique that has been agreed on the way forward and we are all very hopeful that everyone will abide by this communique.
“Since then, we have been able to return production to status quo. There have been one or two areas that we are still trying to catch up overall. We are gradually going back to restore lost production and the deferment that we have as of today,” Ojulari explained.
NNPC’s Performance
Speaking further on his update to the President on the company’s progress, particularly in the areas of production performance and investment attraction, Ojulari explained that the discussion focused on the company’s current performance, the progress made so far this year, and the strategies being implemented to ensure the delivery of these growth targets in the coming year.
The NNPCL GCEO stated that Nigeria is making steady progress in ramping up its oil and gas production.
He revealed that the country achieved an average crude oil output of 1.68 million barrels per day (mbpd) in September.
Ojulari noted that the figure represents Nigeria’s highest crude oil output in nearly five years, describing it as a significant milestone in the nation’s production performance.
He added that gas production also reached a record level of over seven billion cubic feet per day (7BCF/d), the highest in recent times.
The NNPC boss added that with the completion of major turnaround maintenance activities in August and September, production levels are expected to improve further.
He expressed optimism that by the end of the year, Nigeria’s oil output would reach at least 1.8 million barrels per day.
“We are making good progress. As you know we recorded 1.68mbpd of oil production last month which was very good. That was the first in about five years, in terms of milestone. We also recorded the highest gas production above 7BCF per day which is also the highest in recent times. But … with some turnaround maintenances we have done in August and September, all of those are meant to come back this month and we are hoping that by the end of the year we should at least be clocking 1.8mbpd.
“It is quite an important opportunity to update the president on the progress in NNPC, particularly in terms of production performance. In terms of progress, we are … attracting investment. As you recall, the President gave us a clear mandate which is to grow production to at least 2million bpd by 2027 and up to 3million bpd by 2030 as well as grow gas production as well.
“So where are we on that, and how are we progressing this year, and how are we preparing for next year in terms of ensuring we deliver this growth? That was one of my updates to the President,” he added.
