The Nigerian National Petroleum company (NNPC) Limited has declared a state of emergency on crude oil and gas production in the country.

Speaking during his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 23rd edition of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG Energy Week) in Abuja, Tuesday, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mele Kyari, made this disclosure.

Hear him: ‘We have decided to stop the debate. We have declared war on the challenges affecting our crude oil production. War means war. We have the right tools.’

‘We know what to fight. We know what we have to do at the level of assets. We have engaged our partners. And we will work together to improve the situation.’

According to him, a thorough analysis of assets has shown that Nigeria can confidently produce two million barrels of crude oil on a daily basis without deploying new rigs. The major obstacle to achieving that, however remains the inability of players to act in a timely manner.

He explained that the ‘war’ would enable NNPC and its partners to quickly clear every identified obstacle to effective and efficient production, such as delays in procurement processes which have proved to be a challenge in the petroleum industry.

He threw light on medium to long term measures which are aimed at boosting and sustaining production, giving his assurances that the NNPC will replace all the old crude oil pipelines that were built over 40 years ago and also introduce a rig sharing program with its partners in order to ensure that production rigs stay in Nigeria for between four and five years, just as it is considered by other countries as the standard practice.

He tasked all players in the petroleum industry to collaborate towards making the cost of production less while boosting production to target levels.

According to the NNPC boss, he was confident in giving his assurances that the NNPC was committed to investing in critical midstream gas infrastructure like the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipelines to boost domestic gas production and supply for power generation, industrial development and economic prosperity of the country.

Concerning Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), he noted that the NNPC had since bought into the idea of the Presidential CNG drive, stating that in conjunction with partners like NIPCO gas, the NNPC limited has built a number of CNG stations, out of which 12 will be commissioned on Thursday in Lagos and Abuja.

Highlights of the event included goodwill messages and keynotes presented by the Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Haitian Al Ghais;  Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries forum (GECF), Mohamed Hamel; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (GGs), Experiment Ekpo; Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen; including the Chairman, Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), Abdulrazaq Isa.