By G9ija
The Nigerian Government has unveiled plans to set up a reliable database with which she can determine appropriate tariff methodology for transportation and bulk storage of crude oil and natural gas.
This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), under the signature of its General Manager, Corporate Communications, Kimchi Apollo.
It quoted Authority Chief Executive (ACE), NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed that the 2022 Petroleum Liquid Inventory Reconciliation Exercise held from Feb. 6 to Feb. 10, in Lagos.
Ahmed revealed that the exercise involved the NMDPRA, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Crude Oil and Gas Export Companies (COGEC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
He maintained that the expanded data ecosystem would cover petroleum liquid volumes evacuated by trucking, barging and pipelines.
Ahmed said, “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.
“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 ACE also averred that the reconciliation exercise was scheduled to establish and authenticate a common data on midstream statistics relating to crude oil, condensates, natural gas and its derivatives.
According to him, the reconcile data would 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.
“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,” he said.
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 this directly affects royalties being remitted.