Question » Let's start from the issue of volume of oil exports in Nigeria. Who monitors it and how do we ascertain the exact quantity of oil that is exported from this country?

Response » I think when you say export; you are referring to crude oil exports. It is the major responsibility of the Department of Petroleum Resources, working together with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to assure the nation that we know exactly the quantity of crude oil not just being exported but also going to our local refineries and other uses. What we have done is that we have the terminals from where the crude oil changes hands from one to the other. You account, you physically go and check the quantities that is being exchanged at that point. So the critical crystallization point is the terminal because it is at that point that the joint venture operators such as Shell, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and co hand over the oil to NNPC and NNPC in turn to the exporters.

DPR assures that they have actually physically gone up the tanks and dipped their sticks in to ensure that the levels are counted and so on. So DPR is doing that. That is not to say that it is meeting my total satisfaction as Director of DPR. And that is why as part of 2006, we have launched an improvement process to that measurements. To even assure ourselves to a higher confidence that we can know how much is leaving the country. Therefore, we have decided to work to implement the production monitoring system that ensures that we not only get manual measurements but also have an automatic electronic way to measure the levels of the tanks and to transmit that information to our national. So that is happening. That is part of what we want to do this year.

Question » In effect, you have identified that there are loopholes which you are trying to block?

Response » There are improvements in the measurements system, not that there are loopholes. Today, 22nd February, 2006, I just had a retreat with all DPR staff and one of the things that came out was that we still have people who are more than 40years old but because their job is to go up the tanks to dip the sticks in the tanks to measure the level, I could imagine what could happen if the old man fell.

And so when you hear things like that you can only but improve the process. That you do not allow people to be climbing tanks theory they have climbed 10 years ago. Not when there are sounding systems that you can install in the tanks. And they can sound out the levels and electronically transmit the data. Those are the types of improvements that I'm looking at. Its not the assurance that the method is not working but it is to digitize the method such that they be more technology driven, that allows us to even have a better confidence rather than relying on the man climbing up and measuring. I think you also get some level of improved accuracy in that.