Amidst doubt over the increase in Nigeria’s oil production to 1.8 million barrels per day, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has insisted that there is no disparity between the figures being announced in the country.
In recent times, there have been about three different figures being paddled as Nigeria’s production out.
Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, had told journalists at the African Energy Week earlier in November that the country was producing 1.7 million barrels of crude oil.
In May, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC at a stakeholders’ engagement between the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and the NNPC said the production was around 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd).
The figure from NUPRC and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), although with the exception of condensate, was not anywhere close to that.
While the Federal Government was announcing the 2025 budget and pegging crude oil production expectations at 2.06 million barrels per day, NNPC simultaneously held a press conference to announce that the nation’s oil output moved to 1.8 million barrels per day.
On Friday, NUPRC released its monthly production status, saying that Nigeria’s crude oil production experienced a slight decline in October 2024, dropping from 1.54 million barrels per day (bpd) to 1.53 million bpd.
The NNPC, however, issued a statement, saying the seeming disparity was as a result of the difference in the period of coverage in the reports, stressing that whereas the NNPC Ltd’s figure was the peak production for October 2024, the NUPRC’s figure was the average production for September 2024.
Instead of the regulatory body to clear the air on the matter since it has the statuary responsibility, NNPC went on to say that the Chief Executive Officer of NUPRC, Gbenga
Komolafe, at the recent 42nd Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists
Annual International Conference & Exhibition in Lagos disclosed that Nigeria’s crude oil output, including condensate, increased by 16.56 per cent to 1.8mbpd million in October 2024, from 1.54 million bpd in September 2024.
