Amadasu Enorense, Assistant Director in charge of resource management, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), in this interview with Mohammed Shosanya, spoke on the agency’s National Production Monitoring System (NPMS) and other roles in the nation’s oil and gas sector. Excerpts:
What is National Production Monitoring System?.
The National Production Monitoring System is an electronic system put in place at the Department of Petroleum Resources to ensure that production of oil and gas industry are monitored in an efficient and effective way on daily , weekly or monthly basis and also to report same to the appropriate authorities and other government agencies that use production and gas data input .
Could you tell us the purposes of NPMS?
Like I said, it is an online oil and gas production and data gathering. It’s established to have effective ways of collating and analysing oil and gas data. It also designed to put transparency into the way oil and gas production data is collected in the industry from all the oil operators.
It is put in place to improve revenue generation for government through proper production accounting. It is also installed to enhance proficient reservoir management for improved production and as a reliable basis to forecast and manage future production.
The platform ensures consistency and reliability of oil and gas production required for key decision making to improve the industry.
What is the status of NPMS?
There are three portals on the NPMS platform. These include the portal for data upload by the nominated DPR personnel at all the terminal in this country (that is the terminal and export portal) we also have the portal assigned to the operator to upload data from their various offices.
The last one is called the central data base carry out production surveillance, analyses and forecast.
The NPMS is currently evolving and will soon be fully established to deliver the key objective. The annual system of data upload by the operation into the NPMS platform is still characterised by delays. It is therefore on of the key areas that requires improvement.
However, the department is already test-running an automated version of the data uploading system in some selected production facilities. The automated or real time system will reduce human interface in the system and enhance the efficiency in production monitoring and surveillance.
How soon are you going to do that?
Presently, we have about 26 terminal in the country six of them are already running in the online.
We have over 300 flow station in Nigeria we are presently working on all the technical studies and design required to install the online device for the real.
Time transmission of production data. The Director of DPR have met with the chief executive of all major Oil& Gas companies in Nigeria to have their buy-in for the scheme.
What is your take on the controversy between the DPR and the NNPC on Nigeria’s production volume?
Once the NPMS scheme is working at its peak, it will definitely show the world that DPR is the custodian of reliable Nigeria oil & gas production data. That notwithstanding, there is no controversy over the roles and function of the two government agencies with respect to the Nigeria oil and gas industry.
While NNPC is a corporate organisation and an operator in charge of government interest in all the contractual arrangement in the industry with the IOCs, DPR on the other hands is the single industry body of the industry, empowered to make periodic declaration on national oil and gas production status, NNPC’s focus is on optimal, efficient and transparent management of government’s business interest in the industry where government is in partnership with operator to safeguard and maximise government takes.
It should be noted that the Nigeria oil & gas production is not limited to those production by joint venture and Production Sharing Contracts where NNPC partners with International Oil Companies and therefore have access to their production figures.
DPR as the industry regulator oversees the activities of all industry players which include, in addition to the IOCs indigenous independents and marginal field operators. DPR is therefore; better place to obtain, collate and pronounce to the interested public the comprehensive nation oil& gas production status and this, I think is not debated as it is a statutory function of DPR. The NPMS platform will enhance DPR operational efficiency in delivering that statutory function.
However, NNPC is a key stakeholder of the industry as its partnership produce about 96% of the currents national oil and gas production.
The corporation thus has access to such volume of nation petroleum product information. Discrepancies in production figures can occur where the other 4% of national production are ignored or where the source of data point is unspecified. The data point source is critical for production data and two major points are recognized and used for different purposes.
The flow station production figures which account for the well head gross production of reservoir fluids (water oil & gas) is critical for reservoir management purposes. The terminal net oil receipt for custody transfer is equally important for fiscal and revenue purposes. Both production figures should be specified, reconciled and allocated back to the well heads periodically to avoid the apparent discrepancies in the reported national oil and gas production figures. This is done monthly by all petroleum industry production stakeholders as a bulwark to transparent Nigeria production accounting system.
Do you think the introduction of the platform will nip pipeline vandalisation and crude oil theft in the bud?.
Not necessarily because the obligation to produce, report and account for production differs from that of safe-guarding the crude oil and gas production facilities.
The DPR is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and ensuring that all the operation of the petroleum industry operation within relevant extant regulatory provision.
The NPMS is designed to work within DPR’s statutory functional scope. There are other government agencies saddled with that responsibility of providing adequate security of the lives and property Nigerians and operators.
Considering the pivotal role of oil and gas in national foreign exchange earnings, petroleum production facilities should be accorded the status of critical national assets with full security provision. The responsibility to secure the oil and gas pipeline lies with the National Security Agencies not DPR.
However, DPR will always collaborate with government security operative and others agencies to mitigate the menace of pipeline vandalism.
What are the challenges of NPMS?
One of the challenges of the NPMS is because of Nigeria is structured.
We are still advancing in terms of information and communication technology system in Nigeria today. We are still advancing in information technology.
There are some production platforms without internet facility.
In such situations, production data are collated manually. This causes delays in data gathering process and fraught with human related errors.
The upcoming real-time approach will eliminate the problems of data delay and human interface errors.
How to overcome those challenges?
As mentioned earlier, we plan to fully automate the data gathering process. The aim is to have real time data gathering system with minimal human interface such that the Department will have the capacity to access production data direct from the source.
What is the economic benefit of NPMS to the nation?
When we know what we produce real time government would be able to plan and plan properly. Good and reliable data will result to realistic plans.
Production data is the key input of fiscal and revenue system generation computations; therefore, the availability and sustainability of reliable production data input, which is the essence of the NPMS enhances the proficiency of such computations and improves national revenue.
Production and Reservoir Managers will benefit from it for effective technical decisions to optimize national production.
Planning and National Policy Makers will also need it for strategic national revenue projections.
It will also give potential investors to Nigerian petroleum industry that high confidence and assurance to invest in our industry which operates in transparent mode. The country thus gains from increased Foreign Direct Investment and its inherent micro and macro-economic benefits.
Source : https://www.independent.ng
