Nigeria: Press zooms in on N720bn lost to lower crude oil production, others

The report that Nigeria lost about N720bn in revenue as a result of the consecutive monthly decline in its crude oil production in February and March 2024 is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that Nigeria lost about N720bn in revenue as a result of the consecutive monthly decline in its crude oil production in February and March 2024.
Also, the country’s inability to ramp up production in these months made it to miss its crude oil production benchmark in the 2024 budget.
Nigeria’s 2024 budget set a crude oil production benchmark of 1.78 million barrels per day. This figure includes condensate along with crude oil.
But data obtained from the latest April 2024 Monthly Oil Market Report of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries showed that Nigeria’s crude oil production (excluding condensates) witnessed the second consecutive monthly decline since the beginning of this year, as it dropped to 1.231 million barrels per day in March.
OPEC stated that crude oil production details which it got through direct communication from Nigeria showed that the country pumped less oil in March when compared to what was produced in February.
Data from the report indicated that Nigeria produced 1.322 million barrels per day of crude in February this year, but this dropped to 1.231mbpd in March, representing a plunge of 91,000bpd.
The report further stated that Nigeria had produced 1.427mbpd of crude in January, but this was not sustained in February as it dropped in that month, while the southward oil production continued in March.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Government has appealed to members of the National Union of Electricity Employees not to down tools over the recent electricity tariff hike.
This is as the union insisted that they would withdraw their services should the government fail to rescind its decision on the removal of subsidy on the tariff payable by Band A customers.
The National President of the union, Adebiyi Adeyeye, in an interview with our correspondent on Sunday said the union stood by its warning to the Federal Government.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission had on April 3 raised the electricity tariff for customers enjoying 20 hours of power supply daily.
Customers in this category were said to be under the Band A classification and the increase raised their tariff to N225 per kilowatt-hour, from N66KWh.
In its earlier reaction, the union had warned the government to reverse the tariff hike saying, “If the government fails to address the crippling cost of electricity, NUEE will not hesitate to take strong action, including the swift withdrawal of our members expected to be used by DisCos to impose the tariff hike on the good people, to protect the livelihood of our members.”
Speaking with our correspondent, Adeyeye the supply of 20 hours of electricity is not feasible with the current infrastructure.
The Vanguard Newspaper reports that again nationwide blackout as national grid collapses twice in one month
Homes and businesses were left without power supply for several hours yesterday after the nation’s national grid collapsed twice in less than one month.
The last collapse occurred on Thursday, March 28, 2024, making it the second time in less than one month.
Data supplied by the National System Operator, a semi-autonomous unit in the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, showed that the grid collapsed around 3 a.m.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, was still battling to restore the grid as supply rose to 250 MW, with Abuja and Lagos Disco having the highest load of 80 MW, Ibadan Disco with 50 MW, and Benin Disco with 40 MW.
The generation trend with plants on the grid had only Ibom Power and Okpai Gas with 59.50 MW and 117.00 MW, respectively.
Efforts to reach the General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Mr. Ndidi Mbah, to speak on the latest development proved abortive, as calls and text messages were not replied.
The newspaper says that the price war ignited by the reduction of airfare of Lagos to London route by Air Peace has raised concerns in the aviation industry over the seeming move by foreign airlines to run the Nigerian carrier out of business.
Already, there are mixed feelings in the industry over the sudden reduction of prices beyond normal rate.
Many believe the development may not have been informed by genuine concern for passengers, but a retaliatory move against Air Peace for earlier crashing the exorbitant prices the airlines charged.
Depending on the airline and time of booking, some mega carriers including British Airways, which charged about N3 million for economy class, now sells the same ticket for less than N2 million.
In recent days also, Royal Air Maroc had dropped its economy ticket to as low as ($456.99) N569,422, just as Virgin Atlantic ($927.99) N1.1 million and Egyptair ($470) N585,620 respectively reduced theirs.
At press time, however, findings by Vanguard showed that Air Peace’s economy ticket was N1.2 million; British Airways’ ($1,348) N1.5 million; Royal Air Maroc’s ($1,299,40) N1.4 million and Virgin Atlantic’s ($1,158) N1.3 million.
Commenting on the development, former acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Mr Benedict Adeyileka, in a chat with Vanguard, said the aviation world was a competitive market.
”First, there was demand. And once there is demand, the price goes up. Second, they had no competition. We had no Nigerian airline doing international flights until Air Peace came into the picture.
“On its own, Air Peace drove the price down. Nevertheless, let me put this on record. The foreign airlines would not have succeeded in doing this without the cooperation of Nigerians. Who are the people selling tickets in Nigeria? They are Nigerians.
”Who are the people giving them multi-city designations? It’s Nigerians. Who are the people allowing Lufthansa to come into Abuja, and from Abuja goes to Port Harcourt? It’s Nigerians. Nigerians are the people allowing Qatar to do the same.
GIK/APA