Despite COVID-19 Lockdown, DPR Generated N2trn For Nigeria In 2020 – DPR DG

The Director-General of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Engr. Sarki Auwalu, has disclosed that the department generated N2trn for the country in 2020, despite the setback in the oil and gas industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DPR DG said this in Abuja on Thursday at the 2021 Society of Petroleum Engineers Oloibiri Lecture Series. Adding that the DPR has grown to become a business enabler for the industry in Nigeria.

This year’s edition of the OLEF is the 30th in the series and is themed: Operational Excellence and Portfolio Optimization, a way forward for the oil and gas industry post-COVID-19.

Auwalu maintained that the business environment in the industry is still fragile, and charged operators to eliminate inefficiencies by reducing cost, building partnership and entrench collaboration in the industry.

He also said that the department currently runs a progressive regulatory system that encourages compliance and reward performance rather than emphasizing on infractions and penalties.

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“Like I usually say to my colleagues, we want more royalties, not penalties; we want to see compliance kudos rather than non-compliance notices; we want to catch our duty holders doing something right not something wrong. In fact, our aim is to ensure that regulations and industry guidelines are issued and applied in a manner that reflects good oil field practise, internationally acceptable standards and are responsive to challenging and changing industry dynamics and global realities”, he added.

Engr. Auwalu later maintained that the DPR has consistently exceeded the revenue target of the government by embracing systems and processes that ensure transparency and accountability in oil and gas revenue generation, computation, collection, reconciliation and legacy debts recovery.

“Last year alone”, he stated, “We have generated over N2 trillion for this country and we intend to exceed this value for this year”