The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Thursday that it had achieved 98 percent automation of all crude oil supply and marketing operations, which helps it to account for every barrel of Nigerian oil sold across the world.
The automation, expected to be completed next year, now allows the Nigerian state-held company to monitor sales and transactions of every barrel of every blend Nigeria is selling to the global markets, according to the General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division of the Corporation, Malam Mele Kyari.
"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,'' Kyari said in NNPC's press release.
The automation and the removal of paperwork in Nigeria's crude oil sales has led to $1 billion in savings in one year, and has introduced an improved pricing system, according to the NNPC manager.
The reform in Nigeria's crude oil data and lifting information has enabled the country to "eliminate the perennial disagreement" with OPEC over the country's actual crude oil production and lifting figures, Kyari noted.
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While OPEC's total production dropped to a six-month low in November, the largest increase among the members came from Nigeria, whose production jumped by 95,800 bpd from October to 1.790 million bpd in November, according to OPEC's secondary sources.
Plagued by militant attacks on oil infrastructure for most of 2016, Nigeria won an exemption in OPEC's original production cut deal. But as 2017 progressed, Nigeria's crude oil production started to gradually recover, and Nigeria, alongside Libya and U.S. shale, were at times offsetting much of OPEC's efforts to rebalance the oil market. At the latest OPEC meeting last month, Nigeria and Libya agreed to cap their production at their respective 2017 levels.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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