NPDC daily crude production now 138,000 barrels

Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, has increased its daily oil production to 138,000 barrels from 60,000bpd.

This was contained in a rejoinder signed by NPDC management in response to a story published in a national newspaper alleging that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was involved in a N59tn oil deal.

To expand its opportunities in the upstream oil and gas sector, NPDC said it had adopted funding mechanisms to secure production capacity of 250,000 barrels per day by 2015.

The support of the Federal Government in ensuring NPDC’s expanded operations by seeking additional asset base and funding outside the normal government funded Joint Venture cash call is, therefore, an imperative, according to the company.

Five oil communities in Delta State led by Chief Emami Ayiri were said to have made allegations against Alison-Madueke.

Specifically, the minister was alleged to have deliberately excluded indigenous rights to pre-emption and/or first refusal on four oil blocks: OMLs 26, 30, 34 and 42.

She was also alleged to have illegally assigned 55 per cent of the Federal Government’s interest to Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts without any recourse to due process in the transactions.

The minister was also alleged to have had pecuniary interest in Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts, hence her approval of the deal that would make Nigeria lose four trillion cubic feet of gas asset worth $15.72tn.

Meanwhile, the minister has said gas supply to the country’s domestic market has been growing at 20 per cent per annul and is currently at a peak of 1.5 million cubic feet of gas per day.