With improved security in the Niger Delta region, the federal government hopes to ramp up crude oil production to about 1.74 million barrels per day in months ahead.
The renewed hope springs from the fallout of Sunday’s meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
OPEC and non-OPEC members rose from their 35th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee Meeting in Vienna, Austria, with a firm resolve to allow Nigeria, Congo and Angola produce crude “maximally” in line with their respective OPEC 2023 quotas.
But the meeting unanimously voted to cut production volumes in order to ensure global oil market stability.
Meanwhile, Nigeria, Congo and Angola have agreed that the highest production volumes of the last six months from November 2022 to April 2023 should be used as the basis for the determination of their 2024 production quota.
From industry records, Nigeria’s highest production was 1.383 mpd that was achieved in February.
“This implies that Nigeria can ramp up its production up to its current quota of 1742KBD and subsequently be capped at 10 per cent less as its quota for 2024 subject to verification by independent secondary sources”, OPEC said in a statement.
The statement added that the Nigerian delegation remains upbeat that enormous investments made in security will spur crude production to about 1580KBD and supported by 400KBD condensate.
If the momentum is sustained, the possibility of Nigeria growing crude oil production (and condensate) to about 2 million barrels per day in 2024 would not be a tall order.
According to the Chief Upstream Investment Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Upstream Investment Management Services, Bala Wunti, current crude oil production in Nigeria is 1.6 million barrels per day, with the potential to grow to 1.8 million barrels per day by July or August this year.
He alluded that deepened stakeholder collaboration helped ramp up production.
source: https://sunnewsonline.com/