Nigeria: Press spotlights plans by NNPCL, partners to raise crude production, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and its joint venture partners plan to add about 192,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Nigeria’s oil production between the third quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2024 is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Punch reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and its joint venture partners plan to add about 192,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Nigeria’s oil production between the third quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2024.
NNPCL announced this on Wednesday at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas international conference in Abuja. It stated that the crude oil volumes would be produced from various Oil Mining Licences.
The Executive Vice President, Upstream, NNPCL, Adokiye Tombomieye, who was represented by an official of the company, Igandan Olanrewaju, said the oil firm had resumed crude oil production activities on many OMLs, adding that the wells would deliver and increase Nigeria’s oil earnings soon.
He said, “We have resumed crude oil production in earlier challenged areas like OML 29, OML 18, and OML 24, and we expect to ramp up to about 80,000 barrels around that axis with our JV partners in Q3 2023.
“First oil to tanks of about 25,000 barrels was achieved in NEPL, which is former NPDC, in Itakpe field and we expect to fully monetise that by the end of Q3, 2023. For Obodo field in OML 1, it is expected to bring about 20,000 barrels in late Q4, 2023.”
The newspaper says that the Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, has kicked against amnesty programmes for bandits and terrorists in the country.
The army chief said amnesty programmes instituted in many states had failed to achieve their purpose.
According to him, rather than repent, beneficiaries of such programmes see the programme as an avenue to regroup and attack innocent citizens.
Lagbaja spoke when Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said, “So, I want to appeal to Your Excellency that as we come up with a strategy to address the issue, the state government should be disposed to the implementation of the measures that we will recommend so that together we will address the activities of these criminal elements.
“We also have the issue of the amnesty programme that has been instituted, and which has failed, not only in the North but also in many other states.
“I think we need to look at this issue of the amnesty programmes. The agreements have proven to be incorrigible and so amnesty has created an avenue for them to reorganise and launch attacks on defenseless citizens. So, I think we need to look at that.”
The Guardian reports that thieves have vandalised the median walkway in the Onitsha, Anambra State section of the newly inaugurated Second Niger Bridge, stealing the metal plate in the middle of the walkway and expansion joint in the process.
According to the resident engineer in charge of the project, Oluwaseyi Martins, the vandalisation of the median walkway occurred late, last week Wednesday, July 5.
Though the incident does not pose any threat to the bridge or its use, Martins expressed concern that such an important legacy project serving the people could be vandalised barely two months after it was open to the public.
“It just started happening and if we don’t intensify security on the bridge, more damage could be done to other parts of the bridge. It is a new trend that we are experiencing across the country, not only on the Second Niger Bridge.
“We have written to all the security agencies, including the military, that this is an important national asset that should be protected and they should beam their surveillance and security operations on the bridge.
“I know that by now, they are on top of the situation to forestall further vandalisation of the important national asset.”
The multi-billion naira bridge, which runs over the River Niger, linking Asaba, the Delta State capital in the South-South with the commercial city of Onitsha in the Southeast, was inaugurated on May 23, this year, by former President Muhammadu Buhari, via Zoom. It was subsequently opened for public use.
The Second Niger Bridge, which is a bypass of the traffic and commercial activities in Onitsha, was earlier partially opened for one month on December 15, last year to ease traffic during the Yuletide.
The newspaper says that with five weeks left from the eight weeks the Federal Government and organised labour agreed for the conclusion of subsidy removal talks and palliatives, President Bola Tinubu yesterday, asked the House of Representatives to amend the 2022 supplementary appropriation Act to allow the Federal Government source N500 billion for palliative to cushion the effect of petrol subsidy removal.
This is amid a recent warning by the Debt Management Office (DMO) to the Federal Government against additional borrowing, saying 73.5 per cent of revenue generated this year will be used to service debt.
The President, in a letter addressed to the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, which was read during Wednesday’s plenary, said the money would be sourced from the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act of N819.5 billion.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari introduced the supplementary budget in 2022 for capital projects due to the impact of floods on farmlands and road infrastructure.
The lifespan of the budget has since been extended till December 31, 2023.
The President said: “The request has become necessary in order to source for funds to provide necessary palliatives to cushion the effect of the recent removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria. I expect that the House will speedily consider the request.”
Abbas assured that the House would deliberate on the matter during Thursday’s plenary session and encouraged members to come prepared to contribute to the discussion.
On assuming office as president, Tinubu had announced the removal of fuel subsidy, a decision that saw the price of petrol jump three-fold across the country. Following the announcement, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) directed its outlets nationwide to sell fuel between N480 and N570 per litre, an almost 200 per cent increase from the initial price of below N200.
Immediately, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) called for a nationwide strike to protest the removal. However, the planned strike was suspended following a parley between them and the government, with some agreements reached.
GIK/APA