The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has declared a state of emergency on oil and gas production in Nigeria.

Group Chief Executive Officer of the company, MELE KYARI, disclosed this in a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 23rd edition of the Nigeria Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition in Abuja.

According to him, a detailed analysis of assets revealed that Nigeria can conveniently produce two million barrels of crude oil per day without deploying new rigs, but the major obstacle to achieving that remains the inability of players to act in a timely manner.

On medium to long-term measures aimed at boosting and sustaining production, KYARI said NNPC would replace all the old crude oil pipelines built over four decades ago.

He said the NNPC would also introduce a rig sharing program with its partners to ensure that production rigs stay in the country for between four and five years which is the standard practice in most climes.

He called on all players in the industry to collaborate towards reducing the cost of production and boosting production to target levels.