Oil production still on despite price decline – NNPC

The production of crude oil is still ongoing among the partners of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) despite the abysmal fall in its price, it was learnt on Tuesday.

The explanation came on the heels of the speculation that Nigeria had halted the production of the commodity which its prices had fallen below its cost of production.

Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China last year, the crude oil prices have sustained a steady decline until the last OPEC+ meeting resulted in the marginal increase of crude prices.

With the high hope that the high price would endure, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, was optimistic that the Federal Government could still earn as much as $2.8billion from the rise.

It was, according to him, a source of hope that the Federal Government could still sustain its budget benchmark of $30 per barrel.

The prices, however, plunged the global oil communities into panic as they dip to about $11 per barrel on Monday.

But speaking with The Nation on phone, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, said “Oil production is still going on as I know up to today. Whoever gave you that information, I don’t know where they got it from. Our partners are the ones managing our assets. So, they are the ones that will recommend what they think should happen.”

Allaying fears over the declining prices of crude oil, he noted that the situation was not peculiar to Nigeria.

He described it as a global economic crisis that only a prayer for its price rebound could rescue the entire economy.

“We have to pray for God’s intervention, otherwise, it is not good for any economy in the whole world,” Obateru said.

He described the pandemic which culminated in the dip of oil prices as an unexpected one which the nation prays against its degeneration to well closure.

The NNPC spokesman said: “You don’t plan for calamity. It is an act of God. As much as possible we want the situation to end so that we can return to normalcy. We continue to pray that things improve and it doesn’t get to the situation when we begin to close our wells.”