In the bid to checkmate oil thieves in the country, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), has introduced the Advanced Cargo Declaration Regime (ACDR) scheme, a tracking mechanism that would monitor crude oil exports, in addition to properly meter oil wells.
Last week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) released a frightening data indicating that Nigeria has lost over N623billion to crude oil thieves in the first quarter of this year.
The chief executive officer of the NUPRC, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe explained during a media chat in Abuja yesterday that the ACDR scheme will curtail the export of stolen crude oil as there will be a unique identifier and proper documentation for every export-bound oil cargo.
“This implies that any cargo that does not have the unique identifier was not legitimately exported from Nigeria, and actions can be taken with such outbound shipments,” he said.
On the metering of oil wells, Commission chief executive officer, said the scheme also involves the installation of metering equipment – Control of Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (LACT) units in the upstream petroleum industry using Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to avert potential manipulation of figures that could result in short-changing the federation of oil and gas revenue.
According to the 2021 annual reports of 61 operating companies, Nigeria’s crude oil reserve slightly grew by 0.37% to 37.046 billion barrels, while gas reserve rose by 1% to 208.62 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) as of January 2022.
Komolafe said, “Analysis of the report indicates that the nation’s oil and condensate reserves status as at 1st January 2022 was 37.046 billion barrels representing a slight increase of 0.37% compared to 36.910 billion barrels as at 1st January 2021.
“On the other hand, the national gas reserves status as of 1st January 2022 was 208.62TCF, representing an increase of 1.01% compared to 206.53 TCF,” noted Komolafe.
He said the commission was working to further increase the crude oil and gas reserves along with a target. “With a proven gas reserve base of 208.62TCF (as at 1st January 2022), we are on track to increase our reserves volumes to 220TCF in less than 10 years and 250TCF thereafter.”
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