By Alex Emeje
Abuja
The Environmental Rights Action, a non-government organization has charged the Federal Government to employ real time digital metering of oil production in order to ascertain the true rate of oil produced in the country and curtail oil theft.
ERA’s executive director, Dr. Godwin Ojo made this known in a chat with Blue Print in Abuja yesterday.
Outlining ERA’s tasks for 2014, Ojo noted the amount of oil produced in Nigeria is virtually unknown.According to him, “What we usually hear is that the country produces between an estimated 2.4 million barrels a day. But if it is true that oil theft accounts for between 400 to 600 barrels of crude stolen, and if it is true that illegal oil bunkering, is higher than the regular theft, then you can now begin to look at the figures.
Nigerians loses on the average, about 2 million barrels of oil per day. So the country may actually be producing about 4 million barrels per day just declaring what they have sold at the export terminals by the oil companies.
“This year, we want to push that there should be metering, real time digital metering of oil production. From the point of production through transport to the oil wells down to the export terminals, we should be able to measure them through real time digital measuring so that the actual production would be well recorded. This would help Nigeria on two fronts, it will help to save us the ridicule in the world that today, we don’t know the amount of oil produced and secondly, it will improve the economy of this country.”
Ojo also tasked the federal government of social security, saying that it has become imperative since a lot of people have been deprived of their rights and livelihood especially in the Niger Delta region where oil production activities have destroyed the environment, especially farm lands.
