NIGERIA’s crude oil and condensate production has moved to 2.32 million barrels per day, the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru, said on Tuesday.

The news comes as a big boost to the government’s revenue projection in the N8.92 trillion 2019 budget signed recently by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The budget, signed into law on May 27, was based on a target of 2.3 million barrels per day, b/d, oil production and $60 per barrel price.

The immediate past Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, said production increased from an average of 1.91m bpd in Q4 2018 to an average of 1.96mbpd in Q1 2019.

But speaking in Abuja, yesterday, when he received the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by the national president, Chris Isiguzo, the GMD said production as at Tuesday was 2.32 million b/d.

He said: “At some point our national combined production was about a million barrels (per day) but at the end of 2018, we had moved on averaging about 2.1m b/d. As I am speaking this morning, I looked at our production figures, combined oil and condensates, we are pushing 2.32 million barrels a day.”

He attributed the stability and ability of the corporation to push production upwards to several internal and external factors including the support of the media.

“Internally, the NNPC is increasing crude oil production through its flagship upstream company, NPDC. The NPDC in 2016 was producing just 65,000 barrels per day equity but as at today, the company is producing 166,000 barrels per day equity but overall production of the company is about 300,000 bpd,” he said.

The NNPC had in a presentation to the immediate past 8th Senate Committee on Finance on the 2019 – 2021 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), disclosed that with improved security in oil bearing communities, the industry was confident of attaining the 2.3m b/d production volume-target for the 2019 budget.

The corporation said though there is production capacity of over 2.5m b/d, the unfortunate security situation of the past made it difficult to achieve the target.

Nigeria’s condensate production currently oscillates between 400,000 to 600,000 barrels per day.

Baru said the corporation has significantly improved from $27 per barrel cost and was looking for further reduction this year to $20 per barrel.  –   Daily Trust

– June 18, 2019 @ 18:29 GMT |