Marked by huge challenges, the outgoing year was one in which the oil and gas industry in Nigeria failed to impress on all fronts…well, almost, writes Not even in 2020, regarded as the Covid-19 year, did the Nigerian oil and gas sector experience what will turn out be defining series of developments, mostly in the negative, like it did in 2022.
In retrospect, 2022 saw the payment of high amounts of fuel subsidies never before seen in the history of Nigeria, hitting over N4 trillion in all, curtailing investment in critical sectors and deepening Nigeria’s debt crisis. “ All defaulting suppliers have been put on notice for remedial actions and NNPC will work with the authority to take further necessary actions in line with subsisting regulations,” a statement from the NNPC stated.
The country largely failed to meet its allocation, which declined steadily from 1.39 million bpd in January of this year to a low of 937,000 barrels in September before rising above 1 million bpd in October and November. The scarcity of the fuels was closely followed by the rising diesel prices which sold for over N800, in a country that cannot believe boast of anything close to reliable power supply.
“While we do our utmost best to manage the situation and ensure safe flight operations, we plead for the understanding of the travelling public in the circumstance. The current administration has predicted that retaining petrol subsidy in the current form will cost Nigeria nearly N7 trillion in 2023, further widening deficit spending.
The N1.283 billion sales and purchase deal which the presidency earlier hailed as being able to draw foreign investment into the oil sector, would have overridden the long-drawn attempt by the NNPC to block the deal. In spite of the much-talked-about ‘Decade of Gas’, nothing remarkably groundbreaking took place in 2022 to push the envelope towards a gas-powered economy. For the little that was produced in-country, prices skyrocketed, returning many Nigerians to the use of firewood for cooking.
Once completed, the project will supply about 3 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day from Nigeria to the Kingdom of Morocco and subsequently to Europe. It’s also the year the federal government and all concerned agencies moved to stop the embarrassing oil theft which had hobbled drilling in the country, hiring local security groups, literally putting the feet of the security agencies to fire. In 2022, the NNPC said it has acquired equipment to monitor its oil and gas assets in real time.
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