Sam Ikeotuonye
Lagos — Nigeria has about 50 cargoes of its crude oil stranded in the international oil market with no buyers so far snapping up the cargoes, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has revealed.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, disclosed this on Wednesday at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Round Table in Abuja.
Kyari said that due to the coronavirus ravaging many countries in the world and the crash in crude oil prices it has caused, about 50 cargoes of Nigeria’s crude have not found landing in the international market.
He said the development implied that there were no off-takers for the cargoes “for now due to drop in demand”..
The NNPC boss stated that the liquefied natural gas, LNG, was equally affected by the price crash in the marke, saying some cargoes of LNG were also stranded in the international oil market due to low demand.
He said: “Today, I can share with you that there are over 12 stranded LNG cargoes in the market globally. It has never happened before. LNG cargoes that are stranded with no hope of being purchased because there is abrupt collapse in demand associated with the outbreak of coronavirus”.
Cornering Coronavirus
Kyari said the NNPC was working hard to raise the nation’s daily production to 3 million barrels per day and to increase crude oil reserves to 40 billion barrels.
He called on governments at all levels, captains of industries and the organised private sector to brace for the new global low oil price regime, asserting that realistic estimates must be made to reflect the current realities in the crude oil market.
