We have accurate record of crude production, DPR replies NEITI

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) says it has a record of the exact quantity of crude oil produced in the country.

Ogbonnaya Orji, executive secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), had said the exact quantity of crude oil produced in the country is unknown due to the absence of meters at wellheads and the lack of capacity to monitor deep offshore fields.

“We do not have the capacity to go deep shores to know how much we are producing. As we speak, it is very difficult for any Nigerian to ascertain how much actually we are producing,” he had said.

Paul Osu, DPR head of public affairs, in a statement made available to NAN on Friday, said every litre of crude produced in Nigeria was adequately captured during the process of extraction.

According to Osu, it was the responsibility of the DPR to monitor and account for crude oil production as basis for determining government’s revenue through royalty payments by operators for sustainable development.

“As a further step to boosting crude accounting process from production to export, DPR recently launched the National Production Monitoring System (NPMS),” NAN quoted Osu to have said.

“NPMS is an online platform for direct and independent acquisition of production data from oil and gas facilities in Nigeria.

“NPMS as an electronic data transmission tool at production and export terminals is designed to better predict the performance of oil and gas reservoirs and better production forecasting.”

He explained that the NPMS tool enables the petroleum regulatory agency to exercise surveillance, perform production monitoring and data analysis for utilisation and forecasting.

Osu said DPR would continue to develop robust and strategic initiatives to ensure timely and accurate payment of rents, royalties and other revenues due to the government.