DPR ACCUSES IOCS OF FRUSTRATING GAS-MONITORING INSTALLATION

Nigeria may be losing billions of naira in revenue following the refusal of International Oil Companies (IOCs) to allow the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) install equipment that will monitor the production and utilization of gas.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) told the Senate Committee on Gas that IOCs had frustrated the Federal government efforts at installing equipment to monitor the production and utilization of gas real time measurement.

Deputy Director Technical Services of DPR, Mr. Dozie Irrechukwu, said this at an interactive session with the Senator Nkechi Nwaogu-led committee in Abuja on Monday.

He specifically fingered Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Chevron and Mobil as using some techniques to slow down the installation of the real time units that would give accurate measurement of gas production and utilization.

He said the companies had refused to shut down to allow the contractors survey and design the appropriate technology to be used.

Irrechukwu said the project had only attained 8.3 per cent completion even after the contract for the device was awarded in 2009.

He explained that Gas Real Time measurement was an electronic device used to monitor the quantity of gas produced at any particular time.

Irrechukwu noted the IOCs were still using manual measurement, which, he said, was far below the level of gas being produced and utilized.

There was, however, cheery news as Irrechukwu noted that some processes had been completed with the exception of installation of the real time units.

Managing Director of Riverman Technologies Limited (contractor handling the project), Kingsley Itoro, corroborated Irrechukwu.

He told the committee that all efforts to access the facilities of the IOC's had largely been unsuccessful.

In her response, Nwaogu accused the DPR of not living up to their policing role in the oil industry, adding that it was appalling that after the government had decided to separate gas from oil production to generate additional revenue, the project had not seen the light of day four years after.

She lamented that of the 166 terminals that required real time measuring equipment only 10 representing 8.3 per cent had been completed.