Nigeria’s crude oil production surged past 1.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) in July, surpassing its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota of 1.5 mbpd for the first time in months.
Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), told delegates at an energy conference on Monday that Nigeria’s current oil output now averages 1.78 million barrels per day.
Oil production had last hit 1.8 mbpd in November, he noted.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude producer, depends on oil for nearly two-thirds of government revenue and over 80 percent of its foreign exchange earnings.
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The country has faced years of falling output blamed on widespread crude theft, pipeline sabotage and security challenges across the Niger Delta region. These threats, coupled with underinvestment, have strained investor confidence in the country.
In 2024, major oil companies, including Shell, TotalEnergies, and ExxonMobil, departed from Nigeria’s onshore scene, citing insecurity as one of the major reasons.
However, intensified security operations in recent months have begun to yield results, with Komolafe stating that improved surveillance and enforcement efforts are key to the rebound in production.
“The objective is to ramp up output to three million barrels per day,” Komolafe told the conference, outlining an ambitious roadmap to add an extra one million barrels per day to the current production levels.
He pledged continued collaboration with industry players to consolidate gains, tackle leakages, and promote transparency across the upstream sector.
Bayo Ojulari, the group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, recently stated that Nigeria is scaling up its oil production, with a medium-term target of hitting 2.06 mbpd by 2027.
He expressed confidence that output could reach 1.9 million bpd by December this year.
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According to Ojulari, Nigeria achieved full operational availability on its key crude oil pipelines in June, a development he described as the first in many years, signalling improved infrastructure security and system reliability.
