…targets $10 crude oil production cost
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has raised an alarm over the prevalence of low grade and contaminated diesel in circulation.
It said the diesel is being offered at discounted prices.
NNPC Retail Limited Managing Director, Sir Billy Okoye, advised motorists to be wary of the off-spec products.
Okoye stated that the warning became necessary because the low grade, contaminated diesel was harmful to machines and the environment.
He said that NNPC Retail Limited as a market leader considered it incumbent upon it to alert the public on the subject.
He assured consumers that NNPC Retail Limited was dealing only in premium, high-quality products in the interest of Nigerian motorists and users.
He urged consumers to patronise the company’s stations where the quality of their products is assured.
As a deregulated product, diesel is also imported by other major and independent marketers in the country.
Also, NNPC said it is taking measures to bring down cost of crude oil production to 10 dollars per barrel or below.
The corporation’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ventures and Business Development, Mr Roland Ewubare, said this on a TV interview programme.
He was merely restating a recent promise by the NNPC Group Managing Director, Malam Mele Kyari, that NNPC was working assiduously to bring down the cost of crude oil production to not more than 10 dollars per barrel by 2021.
Ewubare explained that terrain peculiarity was an important factor in determining cost.
He argued that pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft, among others, were some of the factors peculiar to the Nigeria terrain that increased crude oil production cost in the country.
He, however, stated that NNPC was looking very closely at such variable as logistics, security and transportation with a view to reducing cost of production to 10 dollars and below per barrel.
He disclosed that much had been done over the years in the area of reducing contracting cycle which used to be a major factor responsible for high cost of production.
He added that the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) achieved a six-month contracting cycle under him as Group General Manager.
Amidst speculations of non-compliance by some countries with the production cuts agreed upon by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its non-member allies, he affirmed that Nigeria was in full compliance with the agreed output cuts.
