Nigeria’s total oil production fell by 0.39 percent in the month of October to 1.538 million barrels per day from 1.544 million barrels per day in September, data released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, has indicated.
The Commission in its oil production report released at the weekend showed that while liquid crude oil production grew marginally by 0.67 percent in October to 1.333 million barrels per day from 1.324 million barrels per day recorded in September, condensate oil production fell by 6.9 percent to 204,806 barrels per day in October from 219,997 barrels per day recorded in September.
The latest data showed that Bonny Terminal received the largest volume of crude oil in October at 6.26 million barrels followed by Forcados at 5.093 million barrels and Escravos oil terminal at 4.339 million barrels.
The data also indicated that production of Nigeria’s latest crude oil grade Utapate was 1.226 million barrels per day during the month.
But contrary to NUPRC production data for October, the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and the NNPC Limited had two weeks ago celebrated the landmark 1.8 million barrels per day oil production for the same month.
According to the Minister, the plan by the Federal Government to hit a production figure of two million barrels per day was on course.
As part of the ongoing effort to improve performance, the Minister underscored the importance of teamwork within NNPC, stating that the collective success of the sector would directly benefit the nation.
He said: “Today we are grateful that we have crossed a line of 1.8 million barrels per day, and also crossed 7.4 BCF of gas, this is our agenda. Today, the entire team is fully aligned and committed to delivering greater value, and we’re committed to delivering two million barrels by the end of the year.
“This is possible. This is achievable. I’m a very proud minister. We can do it again. On behalf of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria, let me formally congratulate the Chairman, board members, and the management of NNPC for navigating this process.” he said.
Also speaking at the elaborate ceremony, Chief Production War Room Officer, NNPC, Lawal Musa, praised the collective effort of the leadership, partners, security agencies, and communities involved, highlighting the active collaboration that made this achievement possible.
Musa emphasized that the industry’s success is driven by clear, value-focused targets and strategic coordination, noting that when the push for increased production began in June, the sector experienced a remarkable turnaround, with oil production rising from 1.43 million barrels per day to over 1.8 million.
Speaking with Vanguard, Chief Upstream Investment Officer NNPC, Bala Wunti said the 1.8m barrel was possible due to the leadership commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He said: “One of the key obstacles is restoration of security architecture. We are able to block and bring into operation some of our shutdown pipelines that enabled us to open up our wells, and we are able to take that production into the market.
“It restored the confidence of the investors, and operators were allowed to operate freely. So all the enabling requirements were provided. So if there’s anything that I think I want to underscore, is the fact that there was critical thinking throughout our challenges. We were collaborative in doing what we did, and we were communicating in a very transparent manner towards what we want to achieve, which is to get to the 2 million barrel target that the GCO has given us by the end of December,” he said.
While NUPRC declined to comment on the conflicting oil production figure, an industry source told Vanguard that the data posted by the the Commission should be taken as the “accurate one”.
The source who didn’t want to be named, said: “NUPRC is the authority responsible for supervising and regulating the upstream sector and the Commission is the custodian of Nigeria’s oil production data. Data are not determined by political promises. The Minister speaks from the point of politics and should be regarded as such”.
