The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has described the recent rise in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly known as cooking gas, as temporary.
The company assured consumers across the country that the current situation would stabilise in the coming days, expressing confidence that prices would return to normal levels.
Bashir Ojulari, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, gave the assurance in Lagos on Sunday while speaking to State House correspondents after an audience with President Bola Tinubu.
“It is relatively artificial because for the period of the strike, quiet movement and loading were delayed for about two to three days, and because of that, you see that impact. As things return to normal, it takes some time for distribution to fully resume, and with that delay, some of the people that have existing resources in reserves had to put up the price,” Ojulari said.
“My expectations are that now that things are back to normal, prices should return to what they were before the strike,” he added.
Strike Impact on Production
Ojulari explained that the recent industrial action caused a significant loss of output, with more than 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production deferred. Gas production was also affected, disrupting power generation by about 1.2 megawatts.
“In this particular case, we actually lost significant production of over 200,000 bpd. We also have gas production that was impacted, and we also have power generation that was affected by about 1.2 megawatts,” he said.
He credited the Federal Government for facilitating dialogue that helped end the strike. “I’m very pleased that the Federal Government, through the leadership of the Minister of Labour and full support of the NSA, was able to put everyone into a dialogue and bring everybody to the table. Now there has been a communique that has been agreed on the way forward, and we are all very hopeful that everyone will abide by this communique,” Ojulari said.
He added that production has largely returned to normal, though some areas are still catching up.
Ojulari also updated President Tinubu on NNPCL’s performance and investment attraction. He revealed that Nigeria achieved an average crude oil output of 1.68 million barrels per day (mbpd) in September, the highest in nearly five years, and a record gas production of over seven billion cubic feet per day (7BCF/d).
“We are making good progress. As you know, we recorded 1.68 mbpd of oil production last month, which was very good. That was the first in about five years in terms of milestone. We also recorded the highest gas production above 7BCF per day, which is also the highest in recent times,” he said.
Ojulari noted that the completion of major turnaround maintenance in August and September is expected to further boost production, with projections for Nigeria to reach at least 1.8 mbpd by the end of the year.
“It was an important opportunity to update the president on the progress in NNPC, particularly in terms of production performance and attracting investment. The President gave us a clear mandate to grow production to at least 2 million bpd by 2027 and up to 3 million bpd by 2030, as well as grow gas production. That was one of my updates to the President,” he added.
