By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has announced that Nigeria’s oil output is increasing and, as of Thursday, stood at 1.6 million barrels per day.
The group chief executive of the Nigerian state oil company, Mr Mele Kyari, said on Friday, noting that this is an improvement after the country lost its Africa’s largest crude producer status after oil theft saw the country pump less than 1 million barrels per day.
In the last six months, the country has moved to increase its production from less than 1 million barrels per day in July last year.
“We are growing production. In July 2022, we were at less than 1 million barrels per day. As at yesterday, we were at 1.6 million barrels and hopefully, we will meet the OPEC quota of 1.8 million,” Mr Kyari told reporters at NNPC’s offices.
This comes as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that in January, Nigeria’s crude oil production climbed to 1,336 million barrels per day from 1,271 million barrels per day in December 2022.
However, Angola’s output – which holds the top spot on the continent – rose to 1.155 million barrels a day, an OPEC survey, which cites secondary data sources, said.
However, according to the oil cartel’s direct communication data, Nigeria’s crude oil production climbed to 1,258 million barrels per day from 1,235 million in December 2022.
OPEC indicated it gets its crude oil production figures mainly from two sources, either as direct communication by member countries or by information released by secondary energy intelligence platforms.
OPEC averaged 28.88 million barrels per day in January 2023, lower by 49 thousand barrels per day on a month-on-month, OPEC said in its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) released Tuesday.
Modupe Gbadeyanka