The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has raised an alarm over prevalent low grade and contaminated AGO, otherwise called diesel, offered at discounted prices in parts of the country.

The warning is contained in a report by NNPC Retail Limited Managing Director, Sir Billy Okoye, on Friday advising motorists to be wary of the off-spec products.

Okoye stated that the warning became necessary because the low grade, contaminated diesel was harmful to machines and the environment.

He said that NNPC Retail Limited as a market leader considered it incumbent upon it to alert the public on the subject.

He assured consumers that NNPC Retail Limited was dealing only in premium, high-quality products in the interest of Nigerian motorists and users.

He urged consumers to patronise the company’s stations where the quality of their products was assured.

As a deregulated product, diesel is also imported by other major and independent marketers in the Country.

Meanwhile, the Corporation says it is taking measures to bring down cost of crude oil production to 10 dollars per barrel or below.

The Corporation’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ventures and Business Development, Mr Roland Ewubare, said this in a statement issued by the corporation in Abuja, on Friday.

The statement said that Ewubare spoke as a guest speaker at a TV programme in Abuja.

He explained that terrain peculiarity was an important factor in determining cost, arguing that issues such as pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft, among others, were some of the factors peculiar to the Nigeria terrain that increased crude oil production cost in the country.

He, however, stated that NNPC was looking very closely at such variable as logistics, security and transportation with a view to reducing cost of production to 10 dollars and below per barrel.

He disclosed that much had been done over the years in the area of reducing contracting cycle which used to be a major factor responsible for high cost of production.

He added that the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) achieved a six-month contracting cycle under him as Group General Manager.

Amidst speculations of non-compliance by some countries with the production cuts agreed upon by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its non-member allies, he affirmed that Nigeria was in full compliance with the agreed output cuts.

He noted that reports including Nigeria on the list of non-compliant countries were not true.

Ewubare said that although Nigeria’s total production capacity was 2.3 million barrels per day (mbpd), it was currently producing only about 1.4 mbpd in compliance with the OPEC+ production quota.

He said that what made up the little extra over the 1.4 mbpd figure being bandied around for Nigeria was condensate which is usually not computed as part of production in OPEC quota.

“There’s some confusion in the market around the parameters for the production cuts.

“Nigeria has a full production capacity of about 2.3 mbpd. We are currently producing between 1.6 mbpd and 1.7mbpd.

“Our OPEC quota as a result of the cuts is about 1.4 mbpd. Condensate is not included in the computation of the cut numbers.

“So what we have is 1.4 mbpd of crude oil. The little you see above 1.4 mbpd is made up of condensate which does not count as part of the basis for assessing our OPEC quota,” he said.

It will be recalled that NNPC Group Managing Director, Malam Mele Kyari, in a recent interview said that NNPC was working assiduously to bring down the cost of crude oil production to not more than 10 dollars per barrel by 2021.