Oil Theft: NUPRC Announced Recent Intervention to Fights with Advanced Cargo Declaration

To prevent oil theft and limit the export of stolen crude oil, the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has implemented an Advanced Cargo Declaration system in upstream petroleum operations.
The NUPRC’s Commission Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, announced this most recent intervention on Thursday in Lagos at the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria’s (NAEC) annual International Strategic Conference 2023.
”Nigeria’s Energy Transition: Enhancing Investment Opportunities and Addressing Challenges in the Oil and Gas Sector” is the conference’s theme.
Komolafe stated that the project intends to ensure that crude oil and gas cargoes exported from Nigeria have a unique identity that confirms all documents with reference to the exported consignment.
He was represented by Abel Nsa, Head of the National Oil and Gas Excellence Centre (NOGEC) Department, NUPRC.
‘‘This implies that any cargo without the unique identifier becomes tagged as illegitimate.
“This, by no small measure, enhances transparency in our export operations.
He also suggested that NUPRC had sent important resources to the Commission’s Special Investigative Unit in order to prevent any instances of predatory behaviour by industry players.
‘‘Over the next few months, we are positive that we shall record a marked increase in our national oil and gas production volumes.
“Quick-win strategies such as our aggressive drive to reactivate shut-in and declining wells will boost production prior to the onset of more long-term initiatives like operations from the new Marginal Field awardees.
Additionally, the Commission is collaborating with security personnel to end the threat of crude oil theft, which has over time led to a significant loss in production, the official said.
The CCE further stated that the agency had started the Drill or Drop Provision’s implementation with a thorough examination of properties that operators had left underdeveloped.
He explained that such assets would be gathered into a basket and then made available to willing and capable investors who had the ability to explore, develop, and produce the block(s) or field(s) in a timely, effective, safe, and ecologically responsible manner.
He said that the seven Deep Offshore Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs) currently up for mini-bid would increase the country’s reserves and result in anticipated advantages for the country and other stakeholders.
Regarding the decrease in unit cost per barrel and income, he said that the Commission is committed to making sure that the cost of doing business in the upstream petroleum industry is significantly reduced.
The NUPRC has also started reviewing all Crude Handling Agreements (CHA) in an effort to strengthen competition and openness, which will lower production costs and boost government revenue from the industry.
It is interesting that the Commission exceeded its income collection target by 18.3% in 2022 utilising the methods outlined above.
Komolafe argued that the Commission had increased its efforts to promote transparency in the industry and that transparency in hydrocarbon accounting was crucial to ensure that the government and other stakeholders could derive the most possible benefit.
He contends that in order to guarantee the security of the investments made by our financial partners, openness is crucial.

Source: allnewsng.com

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