The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, disclose that Nigeria could hit 2.2 million barrels per day in 2023, without the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil production quota rationing.
The GCEO stated this while speaking at the virtual Global UAE Energy Forum, where he maintained that despite the challenges the country aims to produce 1.8 million bpd this year.
For more than a year Nigeria has been unable to meet the OPEC production quota, this led to the shortage of foreign exchange and putting immense pressure on the Naira against the U.S. dollar.
The GCEO however admitted that Nigeria had struggled to achieve its OPEC quota in 2022, stressing that the country had a “different challenge” from the rest of the world, as security issues undermined production.
“For us, we see a trajectory of restoring production, including condensates within the year definitely. And we believe that we can hit our target of 2.2 million barrels per day, although now our OPEC target is 1.8 million barrels per day. We know that it’s practical to do 2.2 million barrels per day.
Kyari futher explained that “We took definite steps to increase production and this is paying off. Around July, our net crude oil excluding condensate came down to around 1million bpd. That has been restored,”
Recall that the government has also taken very practical steps around pipeline security where it awarded a pipeline surveillance contract to Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo in August 2022 to crack down on oil theft and industry saboteurs.
“It’s practical to hit 2.2 million bpd in 2023, this is practical. It’s a moving target,” Kyari said, adding that: “There are a number of projects that I have clear line of sight that can come on board in 2023.”
