Heineken Lokpobiri, Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), has stated that the oil-rich country will reach and exceed the 1.7 million barrels per day crude oil production as targeted in the 2024 budget.
Lokpobiri stated this during a stakeholder interactive session on Creating Value and Enabling Investments in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Sector, hosted by Chevron Nigeria Plc.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by his Special Adviser, Media, and Communication, Nneamaka Okafor, that the country can boost crude oil production to 2 million bpd.
Meanwhile, this is coming when a data from data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) revealed that the crude oil production in the country fell to 1.4 million barrels per day in November 2023.
The data reveals that Nigeria produced 1,466,185 barrels per day with the inclusion of condensate production last month.
However, Daily Post reported that during the last OPEC meeting, Nigeria made a case for the group to increase its crude oil production quota from the proposed 1.38 million barrels per day to 1.5 million barrels per day for the year 2024.
The OPEC crude oil production quota for Nigeria for the year 2023 was at 1.78 million barrels per day but the country could not meet said quota due to a range of problems; crude oil theft, a lack of upstream crude oil investments and other associated challenges.
Lokpobiri expressed his commitment to promoting collaboration with stakeholders to improve the country’s oil and gas sector, explaining that Nigeria is willing to ensure that it produces not just 1.7 million bpd in the 2024 budget but what is needed to meet the local demand.
“The success of the upstream sector will determine the success of the midstream and the downstream.
“And as a government, we are willing to sustain that engagement with the stakeholders so that in 2024 and beyond, we will ensure that we produce not just 1.7 million bpd that we need for our budget but ensure that we produce what is needed to meet the local demand,” he said.
