It also disclosed that the council awarded another contract for the deployment of software that would enable the government to monitor the movement of Nigeria’s crude from the point of loading of every cargo in Nigeria up to the point of the cargo’s destination.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources ,Oil, Heineken Lokpobiri, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Abuja, stated that the initiatives would further give clarity on the volumes of crude produced in-country as well as the amount exported to other nations.

The minister said the main objectives of those decisions were for Nigeria to ramp up crude oil production and grow its revenue from oil sales.

There have been concerns around crude oil production in Nigeria, as domestic refineries have repeatedly complained of being starved of crude by international oil companies.  Also, industry experts have complained about the lack of transparency in getting the actual crude oil volumes produced in the Niger Delta.

Modular refiners as well as officials of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery have repeatedly called for the provision of crude for their plants, while independent oil producers recently stated that Nigeria has to produce about two million barrels of crude daily to meet its local oil demand as well as that of export.

Nigeria currently produces less than 1.3 million barrels of crude oil daily and this is less than the 1.5 million barrels  daily production quota approved for the country by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

But Lokpobiri stated  that with the deployment of the software and metering of the 187 flow stations, the country hopes to get the actual volumes of crude produced in Nigeria, a development that would also help in the drive to ramp up crude oil production.

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