The recent government announcement about installing 186 meters at our flow stations has sparked my interest and raised some questions.
A flow station is a storage tank for crude oil collected from pipelines before it’s exported. The International oil companies (IOCs) manage the flow of crude oil and the pipelines at these stations.
The government’s plan to install meters at these flow stations to monitor our crude oil production for export raises the question: besides the IOCs, who else has been able to accurately track our daily crude oil exports? It’s like buying petrol without a meter at a gas station. How can we be sure we’re getting what we paid for? This implies that, until now, only the international oil companies have had the means to precisely measure our daily crude oil exports.
This revelation confirms my long-held suspicion that the oil companies have gained too much control over our crude oil resources and the revenue they generate. I commend the Minister of Petroleum for bringing this situation to light and urge him to take strong action to protect our national interests from these companies and ensure they don’t keep exploiting our resources.
- OA.