The latest production data released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has revealed that the country’s oil production fell by 13.6 per cent in July 2023, to an average of 1.08 million barrels per day, compared to 1.25mbpd recorded in June.
This is a huge setback to the present administration which has a production target of 1.69 million barrels per day in the 2023 budget.
The production data is also significantly lower than the 1.7 million barrels per day quota allocated to Nigeria by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
It further showed that blended and unblended condensate oil daily productions in July were 38,258 barrels and 174,509 barrels respectively. Condensate oil productions are not part of Nigeria’s OPEC production quota.
The daily average oil production in July was 1.29 million barrels per day, a 12.8 per cent drop when compared to the total average daily production of 1.48 million barrels in June.
This is coming after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited projected oil production to hit 1.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) by the fourth quarter of this year, as measures put in place to boost production begin to yield results.
Executive Vice President, Upstream, NNPC Ltd, Engr. Adokiye Tombomieye had said that the new production targets would be achieved through asset integrity, production ramp-up, well interventions, new drillings, alternative crude oil evacuation and improved security architecture.