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Let's
start from the issue of volume of oil
exports in Nigeria. Who monitors it and
how do we ascertain the exact quantity
of oil that is exported from this
country?
I think
when you say export; you are referring
to crude oil exports.
Yes.
It is the
major responsibility of the Department
of Petroleum Resources, working together
with the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation to assure the nation that we
know exactly the quantity of crude oil
not just being exported but also going
to our local refineries and other uses.
What we have done is that we have the
terminals from where the crude oil
changes hands from one to the other. You
account, you physically go and check the
quantities that is being exchanged at
that point. So the critical
crystallization point is the terminal
because it is at that point that the
joint venture operators such as Shell,
Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and co hand over
the oil to NNPC and NNPC in turn to the
exporters. DPR assures that they have
actually physically gone up the tanks
and dipped their sticks in to ensure
that the levels are counted and so on.
So DPR is doing that. That is not to say
that it is meeting my total satisfaction
as Director of DPR. And that is why as
part of 2006, we have launched an
improvement process to that
measurements. To even assure ourselves
to a higher confidence that we can know
how much is leaving the country.
Therefore, we have decided to work to
implement the production monitoring
system that ensures that we not only get
manual measurements but also have an
automatic electronic way to measure the
levels of the tanks and to transmit that
information to our national. So that is
happening. That is part of what we want
to do this year.
In effect, you have identified that
there are loopholes which you are trying
to block.
There are improvements in the
measurements system, not that there are
loopholes. Today, 22nd February, 2006, I
just had a retreat with all DPR staff
and one of the things that came out was
that we still have people who are more
than 40years old but because their job
is to go up the tanks to dip the sticks
in the tanks to measure the level, I
could imagine what could happen if the
old man fell.
And so when you hear things like that
you can only but improve the process.
That you do not allow people to be
climbing tanks theory they have climbed
10 years ago. Not when there are
sounding systems that you can install in
the tanks. And they can sound out the
levels and electronically transmit the
data. Those are the types of
improvements that I'm looking at. Its
not the assurance that the method is not
working but it is to digitize the method
such that they be more technology
driven, that allows us to even have a
better confidence rather than relying on
the man climbing up and measuring. I
think you also get some level of
improved accuracy in that. |
