By Ayo Yusuf
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri at the weekend disclosed that crude oil production has risen to 1.7million barrels per day and will continue to rise for the foreseeable future.
Addressing Energy Correspondents of Nigeria in Abuja, the minister said as at Friday, including condensate, the country’s production level which had lingered at below 1.3 mb/d has risen to about 1.7mb/d.
Only last week the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hön. Tajudeen Abbas, had lamented that the country lost about $46 billion (N16.25 trillion) to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.
Dr. Abbas had explained further that, “recently, Nigeria’s OPEC quota was reduced from 1.742 million barrels per day to 1.38 million barrels per day. Yet, the country is still struggling to meet this quota as daily production output was 1.184 million barrels per day and 1.249 million barrels per day in May and June 2023 respectively.
“On average, current daily production output is a far cry from the budget assumption of 1.69 million barrels per day. The implication is clearly manifest in the economic crisis that the country is facing.”
However, Senator Lokpobiri has vowed that by the end of this year the production volume would exceeded 2.0 million barrels per day.
The minister who said that his sole agenda in office was to increase production of crude oil assured that he was not going to fail Nigerians.
His words: “When we assumed office, my sole objective was to increase production, increase production.
“The more you increase production, the more revenue is made available to the country…My ambition is to see how we can increase production and today crude oil production is 1.4million barrels per day and including condensate 1.7million barrels per day. We are trying to exceed 2million per day by the end of this year.”
According to him, once the volume of production soars, it indicates more revenue for the country.
Senator Lokpobiri said oil is substantially the country’s economic mainstay adding that increased production will also culminate in increased forex for Nigeria.
The Minister explained that the production had been low owing to security challenges in the Niger Delta region.
He said due to the shortfall, he has been engaging with stakeholders such as the International Oil Companies (IOCs), local refineries and others to tackle the challenges.
He revealed that the Federal Government has pleaded with the IOCs not to quit the Nigeria oil and gas sector for new climes, where they will definitely meet fresh challenges.
According to the minister, the absence of an effective law was one of the reasons the operators were leaving, stressing that the government has addressed that with the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act.
