Nigeria’s oil production could hit 2.2 million barrels per day in 2023, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has said.
The company’s chief executive officer, Mele Kyari, disclosed this while speaking at the 13th global UAE virtual energy forum on Wednesday.
In recent months, Nigeria has failed to meet the OPEC production quota as it struggles to combat oil theft which has affected production output.
According to data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Country, Nigerian production fell in the first seven months of the year to about 1.1 million barrels a day of crude equivalent in July from over 1.4 million barrels in January.
With an average of 1,083,899 barrels per day in July, Nigeria’s crude oil production plunged below one million barrels per day (972, 394 bpd) in August, the lowest ever in several years.
In August last year, OPEC raised Nigeria’s oil production quota to 1.830 million barrels per day.
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Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Kyari said the country is making efforts to restore optimal oil production and meet the OPEC quota.
He said: “In our case, we have a different challenge other than just a lack of investment in the last four to five years. There has been no investment in the last four to five years. That is correct. That is true in many other jurisdictions where cash flows do not support the investment.
“We had a different challenge; the security challenge that became very manifest in early 2022. And of course, we took definite steps to bring back production and this is paying up.
“For instance, in around July, our net crude oil, excluding condensate, came down to around 1 million bpd. That is the lowest ever in the history of our country and our industry.”
