By Ken Afor
Nigeria is increasing its production targets in preparation for the upcoming Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) meeting, where key decisions will be made concerning the amount of oil to be produced by the largest African crude producer in 2024.
As of November 17th, Nigeria was producing 1.7 million barrels of crude and condensate per day, and the county’s owned oil company Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) anticipates this amount will increase to 1.8 million bpd by the end of the year, according to Olufemi Soneye, the chief corporate communications officer at NNPCL, who spoke to Reuters.
The government plans to raise its oil and gas production to approximately 2 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of Q1 2024.
According to Soneye, the intention is to reach a total output of 2.5 million bpd in the subsequent couple of years.
Recall on Wednesday, OPEC+ and its allies made a surprise decision to move their ministerial meeting to 30th November.
It was anticipated that they would lengthen or augment production reductions in 2024 at the conference, due to the big reduction in oil prices of late because of worries around demand and the escalating supply.
Sources affiliated to OPEC+ have stated that Angola, Congo and Nigeria, members of OPEC, are having difficulty agreeing on production amounts and probably cuts before the scheduled gathering on November 26.
At the June OPEC+ gathering, the three African producers were given reduced objectives in the wake of numerous years of neglecting to accomplish the past ones.
Nigeria’s production target for 2024 was lowered to 1.38 million barrels per day from the earlier goal of 1.74 million, however it will receive the ability to raise the target to 1.58 million barrels per day if three external consultancies can affirm its capacity to reach this output.
