About 50 cargoes of Nigeria‘s crude oil are currently stranded on the high seas as there are no off-takers for them for now due to a drop in demand following the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is in addition to 12 cargoes of Liquefied Natural Gas that have yet to attract buyers.

Group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, made the disclosure, on Wednesday, at the Central Bank of Nigeria Roundtable discussion on growing the economy in Abuja.

He, therefore, called on government at all levels, captains of industry and the organised private sector to brace up for the new low regime of global crude oil prices, even as he noted that realistic estimates must be made to reflect the current realities of the crude oil market.

Kyari said, “Today, I can share with you that there are over 12 stranded Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes in the market globally. It has never happened before. LNG cargoes that are stranded with no hope of being purchased because there is abrupt collapse in demand associated with the outbreak of coronavirus”.

The NNPC GMD also expressed the Corporation’s readiness to strategically put in place measures that would alleviate the cost of crude oil production in Nigeria to create market for Nigeria’s crude and make her a choice destination for Foreign Direct Investment.

He said that in the face of the Coronavirus global pandemic, countries like Saudi Arabia have given discount of $8 and Iraq $5 to their off-takers in some locations, meaning that when crude oil sells at $30 per barrel, a country like Saudi Arabia is selling at $22 per barrel and Iraq at $25 per barrel.

The NNPC boss said the state oil firm was working round the clock to increase the country’s daily production to three million barrels per day and shore up crude oil reserves to 40 billion barrels.According to Kyari, at the moment the cost of crude oil production in the country is within the range of $15 to $17 per barrel, while for some leaders in the Industry such as Saudi Arabia, the cost of production is between $4 and $5 per barrel.

He noted that due to uncertainties in the global crude oil market, countries that produce at the cheapest price would remain in the market while those with high cost of crude oil production would not be able to cope with the competing prices.

WHO declares virus a pandemic

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation on Wednesday declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

The agency said latest figures revealed that there are 118,000 cases, more than 4,000 deaths, adding that the virus has found a foothold on every continent except for Antarctica.

„We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled at the same time,“ WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said.

He continued: „Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO‘s assessment of the threat posed by this coronavirus. It doesn‘t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn‘t change what countries should do.

“If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response, those with a handful of novel coronavirus cases can prevent those cases becoming clusters, and those clusters becoming community transmission.

„Several countries have demonstrated that this virus can be suppressed and controlled”.

The term, pandemic, is defined as the „worldwide spread“ of a new disease.

Whereas, an outbreak is the occurrence of disease cases in excess of what is normally expected and an epidemic is more than a normal number cases of an illness, specific health-related behaviour or other health-related events in a community or region, according to the World Health Organisation.

In January, WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

The last pandemic reported in the world was the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 which killed hundreds of thousands globally.

Ghebreyesus further said, „WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.

„We cannot say this loudly enough, or clearly enough, or often enough: All countries can still change the course of this pandemic”.

Lagos quarantines four Children, two Others

Meanwhile, the Lagos State government yesterday said four children of the same family and their teacher who came from the United States have been quarantined for Coronavirus.

The state’s commissioner for health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, who revealed this at a news conference in Lagos, added that another man from the United Kingdom was also quarantined.

According to him, the four children and their teacher were quarantined because they had contact with a Coronavirus patient.

The commissioner said the four children and their teacher were admitted into the isolation centre in Yaba two days ago to see if they would develop symptom of Coronavirus after they had contact with a patient.

He said the first test had been conducted on them and they tested negative, but that another test would be conducted within 48 hours for a final confirmation.

Abayomi also said a man from the United Kingdom who had been quarantined would have test conducted on him today to ascertain his status.

He said the state government was carrying out regular tests on people to ascertain their coronavirus status almost on daily basis.

The commissioner also disclosed that the government had established contact with the two people declared wanted, who were in the Turkish Airline with the index case, an Italian.

He said immediately the media announced the two people declared wanted, people gave out their contacts immediately and that they had been reached.

“The index case is very well – no symptoms, but test shows he is still secreting the virus, but going down, the virus has to go to zero point before he can be released,“ he said.

Abayomi added that there was no specific treatment for coronavirus, saying that most of the drugs being used were HIV drugs to reduce the virus from growing fast.

“We are satisfied with the second coronavirus patient; we will repeat his test tomorrow and based on the test, we will know the way forward,” he added. (Leadership)

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