The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited has expressed concerns over the drop in the company’s gas production capacity, which it has attributed to the increasing rate of crude oil theft and vandalism.
The company warned that the oil and gas sector is gradually being strangulated and demanded urgent actions by the government to stem the tide.
Philip Mshelbila chief executive officer, Nigeria LNG, made this observation as one of the panelists at the on-going 2022 Nigeria Oil and Gas conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said: “We have been producing in the last month at about between 60 to 68 percent utilisation. In other words, roughly 35% of our capacity is empty,”
“There are many factors, but the biggest one of them is crude oil theft. If we don’t address this, we will not get out of this quagmire that we’re in.”
Mshelbila said his company had stopped exports of liquefied petroleum gas for domestic use to meet demand from the local market.
Nigeria’s petroleum regulator, NUPRC, said last week that the country lost $1 billion in revenue during the first quarter of this year due to crude oil theft, warning the practice was a threat to the country’s economy and top Africa’s oil producer.
Olusola Bello