May Crude production: OPEC’s data contradict Nigeria’s position

The monthly report of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has contradicted the claims by the federal government that the nation’s crude oil production is growing.

According to the latest OPEC report, Nigeria’s oil production dropped to 1.25mbpd. OPEC’s data showed that Nigeria lost 30,000bpd as crude production dropped from 1.28mbpd in April, and 1.25mpd in May.

The Monthly Oil Market Oil Report for May 2024, an OPEC production claimed materials gathered from direct communication with the OPEC member countries that Nigeria’s oil production had further gone down, though the figure stood at 1.42mbpd from data gathered from secondary sources.

This was coming at a time when the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPC’s) Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, was reported to have said crude production was nearing 1.7mbpd.

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He stated this when he had an engagement with the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists in Lagos.

He said, “As of today’s data, we’re inching to 1.7mbpd. We won’t celebrate this. On 17th of April, 2020, our production, without doing anything, without drilling new wells, shot to 2.2mbpd. The difference was COVID-19. The thieves, the vandals, everybody went to sleep.”

OPEC said Nigeria’s oil production added 50,000 barrels daily in April after it fell in recent times.

The continuous drop in production comes amid stakeholders’ concerns over the loss of revenue due to the failure of the government to ramp up production.

But the federal government said the drop in Nigeria’s crude oil production was due to issues encountered on the Trans-Niger Pipeline, coupled with maintenance activities carried out by some oil companies operating across the country.

It, however, stated that efforts were on to fix the pipeline, adding that this would enable the country to produce up to 1.7 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensates.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, assured (Nigerians) that measures were being taken to address the situation to, not only restore production to previous levels, but to also increase it.