Efforts by the Federal Government to ramp up oil production to over two million barrels per day suffered another setback last month, The PUNCH reports.
This was as Nigeria’s daily oil production declined again in May, falling from 1.68 million barrels per day in April to 1.65mbpd last month.
According to data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, crude output dropped from 1.48mbpd in April to 1.45mbpd in May.
Recall that the crude production rose from 1.40mbpd in March to 1.48mbpd in April, signalling a boost for the country’s ambitious 2.1mbpd oil target.
However, the fall in May’s daily crude production appears to have eroded the successes recorded in the fourth month, casting a shadow on the country’s ability to achieve the 2mbpd target.
In its remarks, the NUPRC explained that the lowest and peak combined crude oil and condensate production in May were 1.61 million bopd and 1.810 million bopd, respectively.
It added that the daily average production in May was 1.657,435 barrels per day, comprising both crude oil (1,452,941 bopd) and condensate (204,493 bopd)
The commission said the average crude oil production was 97 per cent of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries quota, which is 1.5mbpd.
When President Bola Tinubu appointed the new board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, led by Ahmadu Kida (Chairman) and Bayo Ojulari (Group Chief Executive Officer), he gave them a mandate to raise oil production to 2 million barrels daily by 2027 and three million barrels daily by 2030.
Concurrently, the government wanted gas production jacked to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030. Furthermore, President Tinubu expected the new board to elevate NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and reach 500,000 by 2030.
While inaugurating the new board in May, the NNPC GCEO, Ojulari, said the team had already met with industry stakeholders to review operations and business relationships. Ojulari noted that the management had started optimising various aspects of the company, including the turnaround maintenance of the refineries.
He said oil production had risen to 1.7 million barrels in two months from 1.5 million barrels, with the target of reaching 1.9 million barrels by year-end. “We will promise what we can deliver, and we will deliver on our promise,” Ojulari added.
Our correspondent recalls that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, had repeatedly said Nigeria could produce 3 million barrels of oil daily. In January, Nigeria raised its average daily crude output to 1,538,697 barrels. This was about 39,000 barrels above the 1.5mbpd set for the oil-producing country by OPEC.
The PUNCH reports that Nigeria failed to meet the crude oil production quota approved by OPEC throughout 2022, 2023, and 2024. The government started the new year on a good note with crude production surging from 1.4mbpd in December 2024 to 1.5mbpd in the first month of 2025.
According to the NUPRC, oil production, including crude and condensate, rose to 1.74mbpd in January, up from 1.6mbpd in December. However, production dropped again in February, and it has yet to return to the height attained in January.
