Stakeholders call for accurate measurement of crude oil production

Apparently concerned about the lack of accuracy in the measurement of crude oil production in the nation’s oil and gas industry, stakeholders in the industry have highlighted the need for accurate measurement of production by oil producing companies.

The stakeholders, who spoke at the recent annual international conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), also x-rayed the twin menace of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, hampering the growth of the vital industry.

Tariye George, director technical, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), said solving the problem of metering of oil production is doable irrespective of the cost of meters and security challenge.

He stated that Nigeria has yet to know exactly how much crude oil is stolen because the measurement of crude oil is still inaccurate. “Accurate figure of production data needs to be known.

“There is need for installation of robust metering at point of production. The need for fluid accounting cannot be over-emphasised, as well as multi-stakeholder approach to oil theft and pipeline vandalism.”

Austin Avuru, managing director and chief executive officer, Seplat Petroleum Development Company, expressed doubt over the correctness of figures of crude oil losses being announced by companies, stressing that only the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has the power to announce losses.

“You can’t start talking about crude oil theft when the measurement of production is not accurate in the first place,” he said.

On crude oil production measurement, he said accuracy must be established. “As a minimum, measurement should happen at the flow stations and the last measurement should be at the export terminal.”

Continuing, he said: “if you don’t measure accurately, how can you determine how much is stolen? Only when we address the issue of measurement can we tackle oil theft.”