TheCable

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has pledged to achieve two million barrels of crude oil (bpd) from 2024.

The newly appointed board and management team made the commitment while briefing state house correspondents on Monday in Abuja.

Shortly after President Bola Tinubu inaugurated the board, Pius Akinyelure, NNPC non-executive chairman, promised collective efforts from the team “to turn around the fortune of the oil and gas” company. 

“And to make it a company that we will all be proud of and a company that will help sustain the economy and make sure we create some element of prosperity for Nigerians,” Akinyelure said in a NAN report 

Akinyelure said Tinubu has pledged to lend his support to the board in successfully carrying out their duties. 

“He has assured us of his support and on our own part too, we have given him our 100 percent assurance,” he said.

“We will do the best we can to make sure that the key performance in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria probably will become number one in Africa and probably compete with the leading oil and gas industry around the world.

“It is not an easy task but we know we had the challenge of oil stealing, vandalisation of our pipelines.

“Our commitment is to produce at the rate of two million barrels per day anytime from next year.

“But to do this, we have to overhaul our security architecture, so that the incidences of stealing, vandalisation of pipelines can be reduced.

“And this will possibly help to keep all our cash book and we will become a better nation.”

Akinyelure said the board will restructure NNPC security framework to reduce pipeline theft and vandalism.

On December 12, Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state petroleum resources (oil), had said Nigeria will achieve its 2024 crude oil production benchmark of 1.78 million barrels per day (bpd).

Lokpobiri reiterated Nigeria can increase crude oil production to two million bpd and issues hindering this are being worked on.