Nigeria’s effort to reduce its cost of oil production has suffered a major setback, as incessant pipeline attacks have pushed the cost of crude oil evacuation to $12 per barrel. The cost of crude oil evacuation is just one aspect of the total cost of oil production. The Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Mr. Wole Ogunsanya, stated this at a Townhall Session at the 14th Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) Conference and Exhibition in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State at the weekend. Worried that a growing number of upstream operators are exiting the pipeline system and adopting barging at what it considers a very high cost, sometimes as much as $15 per barrel compared to around $5 per barrel for pumping through the pipeline, the Federal Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) recently set up a committee to evacuate the crude oil evacuation infrastructure in the Niger Delta basin. The PETAN boss explained that the unabated attacks on oil and gas infrastructure, especially pipelines, have forced evacuation costs to an all-time high of $12 per barrel.

Sun