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| Buhari is desperate for cash as Nigeria's oil production drops by 800,000bpd - Oil Minister |
The Niger Delta Avengers have essentially crippled Nigerian economy. Nigeria is almost at a breaking point with a rapid slump in crude oil production by up to 800,000 barrels per day, coupled with the low price of oil in international markets.
This revelation was made by the Nigerian junior minister of Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, who stated that Nigeria’s crude oil production has declined massively from an average of 2.2 million barrels per day last year to about 1.4 million barrels per day due to what he described as increased vandalism of crude oil pipelines.
Kachikwu stated this on Monday while appearing before a special session of the House of Representatives convened over the recent hike in petrol price, that the decline translated to a loss of about 800,000 barrels of crude oil daily.
Mr, Kachikwu condemned the incessant attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region, saying this might impact negatively on the estimates in the recently approved 2016 budget, which pegged oil production at 2.2 million barrels per day.
He, however, expressed government’s commitment to ensure that destroyed facilities were repaired and effectively protected from further damage.
“We are going to work hard to see how we will get these issues resolved and get our production back,’’ the minister said, pointing out that developing infrastructure was key to promoting increased crude oil production and efficiency.
The minister said there were still a lot more things government needed to pay attention to, particularly infrastructure development, which he said the country has not been able to invest in over the last 20 years in the oil sector.
He said the country’s crude oil pipelines had not been replaced for 35 years, while gas infrastructures had not been in place, and refineries were old and next to comatose.
Although he said government was working hard to repair and put them back to work, the critical facilities were at a breakdown stage.
“No country in the world will expect that the fuel price system in the country will benefit its citizens if it doesn’t invest in infrastructure,” he said.
“So, we need to begin to focus on building massive infrastructure all over the country. I know how much efforts it has taken to pump products from the south to the north, to the east and to the west.
“It has been one battle after another, but the time has come to invest in proper pipelines, proper tracking, proper buried levels and begin to move with the world,’’ Mr. Kachikwu said.
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