TheCable

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says it plans to set up a reliable database for determining the appropriate methodology for the transportation and bulk storage of crude oil and natural gas in Nigeria.

Farouk Ahmed, NMDPRA’s chief executive officer (CEO), spoke at the 2022 petroleum liquid inventory reconciliation exercise, according to a statement issued by the agency in Abuja on Sunday.

He said the exercise involved the NMDPRA, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory  Commission (NUPRC), crude oil and gas export companies, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

Ahmed, who was represented by Ogbugo Ukoha, executive director, distribution systems, storage, retailing infrastructure (DSSRI), said the expanded data ecosystem would cover petroleum liquid volumes evacuated by trucking, barging and pipelines.

“It will include a data system on terminal receipt volumes and terminal stock records, crude oil inventory records per company, per terminal, quantities delivered to and received into refineries,” Ahmed said.

“It will also include quantities evacuated to other midstream storage facilities, export permit volumes as well as actual export volumes per company, per terminal.”

The NMDPRA CEO also said the reconciliation exercise was scheduled to establish and authenticate common data on midstream statistics relating to crude oil, condensates, natural gas and its derivatives.

He added that the reconciled data will provide the basis for the administration of petroleum liquid supply license and “guide the appraisal of licenses, authorisations, and approvals issued in the midstream sector relating to petroleum transportation, storage and exports”.

“This reconciliation will be beneficial to our stakeholders, in that the dataset will also be of interest for NEITI audit, OPEC questionnaire and joint oil data initiative. It will also assist the national assembly in its oversight function,” he said.

“Similarly, it can be used by security agencies for investigations and the federal ministry of finance for monitoring the repatriation of export proceeds and royalties remittance by exporters of crude oil and natural gas.”

Ahmed said the authority, as the custodian of petroleum products data bank, would continue to ensure the provision of credible, reliable data for all petroleum operations in the country.

The Petroleum Industry Act 2021 (PIA) mandates the NMDPRA to periodically reconcile data on crude oil terminal receipts, exports, refinery delivery, oil and gas transportation, and other related statistics that are of interest to the federation as they directly affect royalties being remitted.