Nigeria’s Crude Oil Production Climbs to 1.6m Barrels Per Day

Nigeria’s crude oil production is recovering, climbing back to about 1.6 million barrels, the government has said.

The Chief Upstream Investment Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Upstream Investment Management Services, Bala Wunti, said this at the 11th Practical Nigerian Content forum in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state on Tuesday.

He said Nigeria’s oil production as of Tuesday was 1. 6 million barrels per day, from 937, 000 barrels per day reported in September.

Wunti maintained that the output increase was as a result of the government’s rectangular approach to the fight against crude oil theft.

“Crude theft affects all architecture that funds the country. When the oil theft reached its peak, everything including gas production was affected,” he said.

“One, we have security agencies in which the Navy, the police, and everyone within that space was involved. The second is the regulators angle. At this stage, all regulators are made to fully be part of the efforts. Third is the operators’ angle. And, of course, all operators were involved. The fourth angle is the community angle in which all impacted communities have to be brought under the umbrella of a structured arrangement in the collective effort against crude oil theft. In all, these efforts were able to do three things; Detect, deter and respond appropriately,” Wunti explained.

“As at today, oil production is at 1.59 million barrels per day,” he added.

Earlier, at the September Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting, an NNPCL presentation indicated that Nigeria lost as much as 8.14 million barrels in August.

As a result, contributions from the oil sector to the GDP fell to 5.7 percent in the third quarter of 2022, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The Bureau, in its GDP Sector Report, said that the oil sector’s contribution of 5.7 percent in Q3, 2022, was a decline when compared to a 6.3 percent real GDP contribution recorded in Q2-2022.

The report stated that Nigeria’s average crude oil production in Q3-2022 was 1.2 million barrels per day (including condensates), lower than Q3-2021’s 1.6 million barrels per day, a 23.6 percent decline.

Also, a statement by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning last Wednesday, said the excess crude account crashed by 89 per cent in the last eight years, moving from $4.1bn in November 2014 to $472,513 in the same period of 2022.The balance as of November 23, 2022, stood at $472,513.64.

Punch/Hauwa Abu