The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited claimed to have achieved crude oil production of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) and gas production of 7.4 standard cubic meters per day (scfd) in November.

The disclosure was made available by the spokesperson of the NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, on Thursday following a press conference in Abuja.

The national oil company said it was also targeting about 2 million bpd by the end of the year.

What the NNPC says

Speaking at the press conference, the Group CEO of NNPC, Mele Kyari, commended the Production War Room team that anchored the production recovery process.

“The team has done a great job of leading this project not only to recover production, but also to escalate production to expected levels that are short-term and long-term acceptable to our shareholders based on the mandates we have from the President , The Hon. minister and the board of directors” Kyari said.

• On his part, the Senior Business Adviser to the Group Chief Executive, Mr. Lawal Musa, disclosed that the feat was achieved through the collaborative efforts of the Joint Venture and Production Sharing Agreement partners, the Office of the National Security Adviser as well as agencies government and private security.
• He said that the interventions that led to the recovery of production are being carried out on every segment of the production chain, security agencies are closely monitoring the pipelines.

“We are confident that with the same drive and active collaboration of all stakeholders, especially on security, we can see the possibility of reaching 2mbpd by the end of the year.” he stated.

What you should know

NNPC’s claim of 1.8 million bpd crude output comes days after OPEC released its monthly data, showing that Nigeria’s crude output for October rose to just 1.43 million bpd.

• NNPC did not specify in its press briefing whether the value of crude oil production included blended condensate and non-blended condensate.

• While the November data from OPEC and the Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) is yet to be released, there is no independent data to support the NNPC’s claim that Nigeria is producing up to 1.8 million bpd of crude oil.
• It is important to note that an increase in crude oil production would also mean an increase in foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria, which could help stabilize the local currency, the naira, which is yet to find its balance in the foreign exchange market.

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