Nigeria Oil Production Rises -- Petroleum Minister

….as NNPC Rakes N219bn In 3 Yrs

Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Mdueke on Tuesday in Abuja disclosed that there has been a significant increase in the country’s oil production.

According to the Minister who was speaking at the Ministerial Platform, “Revenue generated from NNPC downstream retail activities have grown by 39% in the last 3yrs, growing from N151bn to N219bn.”

She however lamented the upsurge in pipeline vandalism and oil theft adding that measures were currently been put in place to curb these negative developments.


Nigeria is said to loss over N7billion daily to pipeline vandals and oil thieves.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke stressed that gas development is the way of the future for Nigeria.

 “We have targeted interventions expected to transform the Nigerian gas sector in a short time. Gas is the way of the future for Nigeria.” She said
The Minister noted that since 2011 till date, over 300km of gas pipelines have been completed and commissioned, and 340km of pipeline segments would be completed in the next six months.

“Over the last two years, we have reduced our gas flaring as a percentage of gas usage. A three point mandate: Growth – Stimulation – Leveraging of gas as feedstock instead of fuel will help to create jobs as well as boost revenue from gas sales.”

The Minister added that over the past couple of years, there have been increased support for indigenous upstream, midstream and downstream sectors in the oil sector.

“It has been a 30year challenge to develop our gas sector and all the necessary measures have to be taken into consideration.”

She said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is working in partnership with the Nigeria Petroleum Development Corporation (NPDC) on compressed gas project which would significantly reduce the cost of transportation in the country.

“As we speak over 2000 taxis now run on natural gas in Benin City supplied by 6 Filling stations owned by NNPC/NIPCO JV”

These taxi drivers she stated where changing from fuel usage to compressed natural gas after the discovery by them that it was cheaper than running their vehicles on fuel.