The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd., NNPCL, has assured that projections on crude oil production and price benchmark for the 2024 Budget were realistic and realisable.

The group chief executive officer of the company, Mele Kyari, gave the assurance during an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance at the National Assembly, Abuja, on Wednesday.

A statement by Olufemi Soneye, NNPCL spokesman, noted that Kyari made the remarks while speaking on the dynamics of the market in relation to the projected budget benchmark price of 77.96 dollars per barrel.

“With what we see in the market today and potentially in the year 2024 and even beyond the next two years, it is very unlikely to see 70 dollars per barrel oil in the market.

“The oscillation we are seeing, sometimes you do see prices coming down to 75 dollars to the barrel and sometimes it goes above it, overall, benchmarks are averages.

“We think that the proposal by Mr President around the 77.96 dollars is still realisable in 2024,” he said.

On the crude oil production projection, he said Nigeria had 1.785 million barrels per day (bpd) as the cumulative of all oil produced in the country.

The GCEO said the figure was inclusive of all production activities, including crude oil and condensate.

“I need to make this clarification because of the reports in the media that our Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota is 1.5 million barrels per day.

“The OPEC quota is related only to crude oil. We also do between 250,000 to 300,000 barrels per day of condensate in our production. When you combine the two, the 1.78mbpd is realistic and realisable,” he said.

He expressed optimism that though there were challenges such as security and force majeure, the measures being deployed by the Federal Government would be able to take care of them to guarantee the projected level of production.

The GCEO also assured that NNPCL would maintain the level of dividends remittance to the Federation Account as stated in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.

He added that the projected dividends from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. was also realisable and would flow directly into the Federation Account as stipulated by the law.

On the company’s Road Tax Credit Scheme, Kyari explained that all the roads being undertaken under the scheme would be duly completed.

He explained that the scheme was anchored by the Ministry of Works while the Federal Inland Revenue Service and NNPCL were only playing supervisory roles to ensure that value was delivered for every kobo paid.

Earlier, chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Mohammed Musa, said the interactive session was to deepen conversations on the projections in the 2024 Appropriation Bill to help the lawmakers determine adjustment.

He expressed satisfaction with the explanations offered by the NNPCL’s helmsman.

Recall that the Federal Government, in the Appropriation Bill, gave an average crude oil production benchmark of 1.78 mb/d, and a crude oil price benchmark of 77.96 dollars.

NAN