Nigeria’s Oil Production Hits 1.7m barrels per day- Minister

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri at the weekend disclosed that crude oil production as of Friday was 1.7milliion barrels per day.

He vowed that by the end of this year the production volume would exceeded 2.0 mb/d.

He noted that his sole agenda in office is to increase production of crude oil.

“When we assumed office, my sole objective was to increase production, increase production.

‘ The more you increase production, the more revenue available to the country…My ambition is to see how we can increase production and today crude oil production is 1.4million barrels per day and including condensate 1.7million barrels per day. We are trying to exceed 2million per day by the end of this year.”

According to him, once the volume of production soars, it indicates more revenue for the country.

Lokpobiri said oil is substantially the country’s economic mainstay adding that increased production will also culminate in increased forex for Nigeria.

The Minister explained that the production was low owing to security challenges in the Niger Delta region.

Due to the shortfall, Lokpobiri said he was already engaging with the stakeholders such as the International Oil Companies (IOCs), local refineries and others to tackle the challenges.

He revealed that the Federal Government has admonished the IOCs not to quit the Nigeria oil and gas sector for new climes, where they will definitely meet fresh challenges.

He added that the absence of a new law was one of the reasons the operators were leaving, stressing that the government has addressed that with the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act.