Despite the fluctuations in the value of the naira, Nigeria has successfully cut down the cost of oil production, revealed the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.
He noted that the reduction in the cost of oil production was made possible by the joint effort of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), this is according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The minister said, “We have reduced the cost of production successfully, the issues of our local currency notwithstanding.
“Recently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) have launched programmes on cost reduction and it has impacted the sector
“Both programmes have helped to bring down the cost of production, but what also helped us in reducing the cost of production is from a very unlikely quarter and that is COVID-19.
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“With COVID-19, oil prices crashed and a lot of contracts were rationalised and we had to renegotiate, so, we were able at that point to get everybody on board to reduce the cost of production.
“Also, the fact that a lot of expatriates left because of COVID-19 made our locals to step in and of course, the locals are cheaper and we have to find local solutions to some of our problems.
“So, on the whole, we were able to significantly bring down the cost of production even beyond five per cent and our target now is not just five per cent, but we are targeting 10 per cent.”
