Nigeria’s oil production edged slightly, last month, to regain its leading position in Africa, while, yesterday, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pegged the country’s oil production in May at 1.2 million barrels.

Still far below the 2023 budget benchmark of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) and OPEC’s quota of 1.8 million bpd, the figure provided by the global body, once again, differs from statistics revealed, yesterday, by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), which put daily production at 1.4 million barrel.

This came as TotalEnergies announced the Ntokon oil and gas discovery on Oil Mining Licence (OML) 102, offshore Nigeria. Amid uncertainties in the global economy, OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report released, yesterday, maintained its position that global oil demand this year would rise by 2.35 million bpd or 2.4 per cent.

While NUPRC’s data show that Nigeria’s production stood at 1.18m barrels, with additional blended condensate (0.065m barrels) and unblended condensate (0.18m barrels), bringing production to 1.4 million bpd, OPEC put the figure at 1.2 million.

The development, however, showed improvement in production, which OPEC had reported as falling below one million barrels in April. OPEC had, in the report, expressed worry, saying: “There are rising uncertainties regarding economic growth in the second half of 2023, amid ongoing high inflation, already elevated key interest rates, and tight labour markets.

“Moreover, it is still unclear as to how and when the geopolitical conflict in Eastern Europe (Ukraine) might be resolved.” Yesterday, oil prices bounced back with about 3.55 per cent increase, after dropping on Monday by $3 per barrel. The rebound was linked to projected expectations of the U.S. Fed meeting.

Meanwhile, Total, in a statement, noted that its discovery in Nigeria was made in shallow waters, 60 kilometres, off the southeast coast of Nigeria.

It said its Ntokon-1AX discovery well encountered 38 metres of net oil pay and 15 metres of net gas pay, while its sidetrack, Ntokon-1G1, encountered 73 metres of net oil pay, in well-developed and excellent quality reservoirs.

Ntokon-1G1 tested successfully up to a maximum rate of about 5,000 bpd of 40° API oil. Located 20 kilometres from the Ofon field facilities on OML102, Ntokon is planned to be developed through a tie-back to existing facilities.

President, Exploration and Production at TotalEnergies, Nicolas Terraz, said: “The Ntokon discovery opens a promising outlook for a new tie-back development. After start-up of production of the Ikike tie-back on OML99 in 2022, this new success in the area further demonstrates the potential of nearby exploration, to create value within our low cost, low emission strategy.”