State oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said it can account for every barrel of crude oil sold in the country.
The Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division of NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday in a statement by the Corporation’s Spokesman, Ndu Ughamadu.
According to Kyari, the state oil firm had achieved 98 percent automation of all transactions involving the supply, marketing and sale of the various grades and blends of Nigeria’s crude oil across the world.
He said that the exercise, which would be concluded in 2018, had enabled the Corporation to achieve an end-to-end monitoring of every barrel of crude oil sold in the country.
“Today at a click of a button we can tell you how much crude oil is sold at what price, who bought it and where it has gone to etc,” he said.
Kyari said that the projection was to operate a complete paperless crude oil data management regime in line with the ongoing transformation of the processes which had witnessed sweeping reforms since 2015.
The reforms include the open bid process of customer selection for lifting and purchase of Nigeria’s crude oil grades, emplacement of efficient crude for product import processes leading to savings of $1 billion dollars in one year.
Other reforms include the introduction of improved pricing system, which has evolved into a robust pricing mechanism.
“The reform has led to the harmonisation of Nigeria’s crude oil data and lifting information, providing access to major internationally-recognised reporting agencies like Plat and Argus Media to achieve real-time reporting of Nigeria’s crude oil transactions.
“This development also enabled the country to eliminate the perennial disagreement with its major stakeholder, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries on actual production and lifting figures.
Kyari said that NNPC would continue to engage members of the public and other critical stakeholders to keep them abreast of innovations in the supply, marketing and sale of the various grades and blends of Nigeria’s crude oil across the world.