Nigeria’s total oil production increased marginally by 1.45 per cent in May 2024 to 1.46 million barrels per day, up from 1.44 million barrels per day in April.Nevertheless, the new marginal gain fell short of the country’s OPEC quota of 1.5 million barrels per day and the 1.7 million barrels per day benchmark set for the 2024 national budget.
It was revealed that the new production figures from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) contradict claims by Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited CEO Mr. Mele Kyari that oil production has reached 1.7 million barrels per day.
The output for May 2024 consisted of 1.25 million barrels per day of crude oil production and 217,076 barrels per day of condensate production, failing to meet the targeted levels.
Data provided by NUPRC indicated that oil production in the first five months of the year had failed to improve as production in January was 1.64mbpd, February 1.54 mbpd and March 1.43 mbpd.
Also, on a year on year basis, total production in May rose slightly by 2.6 per cent compared to 1.43 million barrels per day recorded over a similar period in 2023.The Commission Chief Executive, Engr Gbenga Komolafe who disclosed this while unveiling the Nigerian 2024 licensing round in Lagos said that the government was committed to conducting the licencing round in a fair, competitive and transparent manner.
He explained: “The Commission, in partnership with its multi-client partners, has acquired more geological data resulting in the identification of more prospective blocks.The newly identified blocks will be added to the pool of blocks originally scheduled for the bid exercise, and their details will be made available on the bid round portal.
Source:https://newtelegraphng.com