Nigeria’s oil production adds 25,000 barrels per day

Nigeria’s daily oil production rose by 25,000 barrels per day, increasing from 1.251 million barrels per day in May to 1.276mbpd in July.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries disclosed this in its Monthly Oil Market Report for the June, quoting direct communication with the Nigerian government.

According to the report on Thursday, the country’s oil production fell from 1.28mbpd in April to 1.25mbpd in May.

Despite efforts by the government to ramp production, Nigeria could not return to the 1.28mbpd it was in April.

According to secondary sources, OPEC said the figure dropped from 1.37mbpd in May to 1.36mbpd in June.

The PUNCH reports recalls that the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, stated that crude production was nearing 1.7mbpd in May.

Kyari, who spoke in May during a stakeholders’ engagement 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.”

However, the figure from OPEC and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission showed a decline.

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 heavily 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 NNPC disclosed that it has declared a state of emergency on oil production.

It said this was a move towards increasing Nigeria’s crude oil production and growing its reserves.

Kyari, disclosed this in a keynote address at the Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition Week in Abuja.

 “We have decided to stop the debate. We have declared war on the challenges affecting our crude oil production. War means war. We have the right tools. We know what to fight. We know what we have to do at the level of assets. We have engaged our partners. And we will work together to improve the situation,” Kyari declared.