Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources Rilwanu Lukman has said the country is losing an average of 1 million barrels of crude oil per day because of the crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta, the Lagos-based This Day newspaper reported Wednesday.
The minister disclosed this at the meeting of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party National Working Committee in Abuja on Tuesday, noting that the country is still counting the losses inflicted by militancy in the oil-rich region.
Lukman said owing to the Niger Delta crisis which is a major challenge to his ministry, oil production has dropped to between 1.4 million barrels and 1.5 million barrels per day, against the budget benchmark of 2.2 million barrels per day.
He said the crisis has made mincemeat of budget projections as a fall in revenue has affected the implementation of budgets, with many states opting to cut down spending and sourcing extra funds from the capital market.
The minister added the Atlas Cove jetty bombed by militants nearly two weeks ago had resumed operation since last Sunday, noting that adequate security had been put in place to forestall are-occurrence.
According to him, the Nigerian federal government is planning to regain the loss incurred in the sector by ensuring an increase in production to a target of 4 million barrels per day.
"We have production capacity of 2.3 million barrels per day but because of problems in the Niger Delta, we cannot meet our target, "he added. "This year's budget is based on having 2.2 million barrels per day, so, we are in short of a million barrels."
Lukman said the policy of the Nigerian federal government to embark on the deregulation of the downstream sector was inevitable as the budget for subsidy of petroleum products was far above the budget for capital projects every year.
He said the government would not back down on the policy of deregulation, even as the National Assembly, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria had accepted the deregulation policy in principle.
Source: Xinhua
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