Nigeria’s oil production drops to 1.25mbpd, says OPEC

NNPC GMD, Mele Kolo Kyari. Source: Twitter

Nigeria’s daily oil production dipped further to 1.25 million barrels per day in May, a report by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has said.

This is despite the claim by the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited that the country’s oil production has risen to 1.7mbpd.

OPEC data showed that Nigeria lost 30,000bpd as crude production dropped from 1.28mbpd in April to 1.25mpd in April.

Recently in May, the NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, stated that crude production was nearing 1.7mbpd at the time.

Kyari, who spoke during a stakeholders engagement between the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists and the NNPCL held in Lagos, said,  “As of today’s data, we’re inching to 1.7mbpd. We won’t celebrate this. On 17th of April 2020, our production, without doing anything, without drilling new wells, shot to 2.2mbpd. The difference was COVID-19. The thieves, the vandals, everybody went to sleep.”

But in its Monthly Oil Market Oil Report for May 2024, OPEC said it gathered from direct communication with the OPEC member country that Nigeria’s oil production had further gone down, though the figure stood at 1.42mbpd from data gathered from secondary sources.

The PUNCH reported earlier that Nigeria’s dwindling daily oil production turned the corner in April, rising marginally from 1.23 million barrels per day in March to 1.28mbpd, according to OPEC.

OPEC said Nigeria’s oil production added 50,000 barrels daily in April after it fell in recent times.

The nation’s crude production fell from 1.32 million barrels per day in February to 1.23 million barrels per day in March.

Production dropped from 1.427mbpd in January to 1.322mbpd, according to direct sources.

The continuous drop in production came amid stakeholders’ concerns over the loss of revenue due to the failure of the government to ramp up production.

Recently, the Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, Wole Ogunsanya, said the country was losing a lot of revenue daily due to its inability to tackle dwindling oil production.

According to Ogunsanya, if Nigeria could retain between 60 and 70 per cent of the oil and gas value chain in the country, it stands a better chance of being among the top 20 economies in the world.

He pointed out that the country was underproducing to the tune of at least 500,000 barrels per day, which was a huge loss to the country.

But the Federal Government said the drop in Nigeria’s crude oil production was due to issues encountered on the Trans Niger Pipeline, coupled with maintenance activities carried out by some oil companies operating across the country.

It, however, stated that efforts were on to fix the pipeline, adding that this would enable the country to produce up to 1.7 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensates.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, claimed that the drop in production was due to issues encountered on the Trans Niger Pipeline.

“In response to recent concerns regarding a shortfall in oil production in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2024, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, assures (Nigerians) that measures are being taken to address the situation to, not only restore production to previous levels but to also increase it.

“The minister clarifies that the reported production shortfall was primarily due to issues encountered on the Trans Niger Pipeline, coupled with maintenance activities carried out by some oil companies operating in Nigeria.

“The minister is also pleased to announce that the issues have been adequately addressed, and production is expected to return to its previous levels in the coming days,” a statement by Lokpobiri’s spokesman, Nneamaka Okafor, said in April.

At a meeting with stakeholders in Lagos recently, Lokpobiri emphasised that idle oil wells and licences would be revoked and handed over to individuals with proven capacity to produce.

The NNPC GCEO has on different occasions blamed energy theft and vandalism for the falling oil output, saying this was no one was investing in the sector.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government said it is ready to attract investors to the oil and gas sector by reducing front entry barriers, one of which is the reduction of signature bonus from around $200m to $10m.