Despite passing the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and a host of ongoing reforms, the hiccups in the oil and gas industry are yet to abate and have plunged oil production to a record low in the past two years. In this report, Daily Trust on Sunday ex-rays the various factors responsible for the decline in oil production, ranging from a drop in exploration activities as rig count, a major tool for oil drilling, dropped by about 36 percent since 2019, to massive reports of crude oil theft, as well as the shutting in of drilled crude across selected oil wells over the fear that it could be stolen through the pipes.
Hydrocarbon is currently extracted from 323 developed fields in both onshore and offshore terrains, according to the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). These fields, which either contain crude oil, condensates, or natural gas reservoirs, are connected to 265 production processing stations, after which the stabilized oil and gas are exported via 31 export terminals.
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The onshore processing infrastructures are linked to eight crude oil and condensates and gas export terminals through pipelines that span 5,284 kilometers. Some of the pipelines are connected to the three core local refineries that are moribund and undergoing rehabilitation.
Since 2018 when the refineries shut down completely, Nigeria has depended on refineries in Antwerp Belgium, and Italy to import its refined or white products, which are heavily subsidized at an initial N4trillion for the 2022 fiscal year, but has been projected to reach N6trn in subsidy cost.
Read more: https://dailytrust.com/nigerias-oil-industry-still-in-poor-state-despite-reforms