DPR can account for every molecule of hydrocarbon produced in Nigeria, says Director

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said that every molecule of hydrocarbon produced in the country is being accounted for with its sophisticated real time monitoring platform and stories about crude oil and gas theft are unfounded.

The Director and Chief Executive Officer of DPR, Sarki Auwalu stated this when the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed paid a working visit to the headquarters of the department in Lagos.

Auwalu said the popular perception that DPR relied on oil companies to give them volume of their production was unfounded.

He said the DPR has a robust system in its national data repository which monitors real time the 2000 oil wells that are producing in Nigeria and every vessel that comes in and goes out of the country.

“With the National Production Management System, in our repository, we get all the information from terminals, operators and transmit same into central data base which enables us to analyse, forecast and get the accurate production.

Before you drill, there is what we call maximum efficiency rating and every six months we test the 2000 producing wells to know how much volume each can produce.

“Base on this, we will give a technical allowable volume that the well produce, whether it is oil or gas; Our accounting starts from there.

“When the volume in the system tallies with the technical allowable, that is when we can reconcile and use it to calculate royalties,” he said.

The Director explained that there is no vessel that can come to pick crude oil in the country without the knowledge of the DPR and they track imports and exports.

“Every vessel that is coming to load in Nigeria, we have information before hand about where it is coming from and where it is going.

“Therefore, if we see any vessel, from our platform that is not on our data, we will report to the appropriate authority.

“That is why you see many arrest of vessels by navy, EFCC. We provide the information to the agencies,” he said.

Auwalu said the DPR is equally leveraging on technology to check sharp practices of some independent marketers in the filling stations accross the country.

The Director noted that with just1006 member of staff including upstream and downstream in DPR, it is practically impossible to deploy someone to each of the 30,000 registered filling stations accross the country, so they have to leverage on technology.

“There is a DPR short code *7117# which the National Communication Commission graciously gave us which we are using to track activities of the stations.

“We are taking account of volume of products coming into the country from ships to tank to trailers to filling stations; so, we know the volume of products that go into the stations.

“Before we clear you from the depot, you will input the code, *7117# which will generate and record the volume of the product you are carrying.

“So everyday we use the totaliser to determine your sale.

“If you tamper with the totaliser in your report we will use it to determine how much litre you have shortchange customers and you will face the consequence,” he said.

The Director said DPR has mandated the use of the short code by the filling stations and it has helped in profiling them and checkmating their sharp practices.

In a remark, the minister said many Nigerians are ignorant about the operations of the DPR and he tasked the management of the department to do more of advocacy to educate Nigerians.

Mohammed said the forum has afforded the Director to clear the air on some misconceptions and tales being spread outside about the industry, particularly on crude theft.

Specifically, the minister said the Director has stated the true position about the stories making the round that Nigerian crude oil were being hijacked mid-sea.