Nigeria’s crude oil production rose to 1.418mbpd in December 2023, a report by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has said.
OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report for January 2024, said Nigeria’s crude oil production increased by 100mb/d, from 1.319mbpd in November, according to secondary sources.
In the report released on January 17, OPEC disclosed, according to direct communication, that the nation’s oil production in December stood at 1.335mpbd, as against 1.250mbpd in November.
The report indicated that OPEC countries like Algeria, Congo, Iran, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates suffered a reduction in the oil output in the period under review.
“According to secondary sources, total OPEC-12 crude oil production averaged 26.70 mb/d in December 2023, higher by 73 tb/d, month-on-month. Crude oil output increased mainly in Nigeria and Iraq, while production in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and IR Iran decreased,” the report said.
Nigeria’s oil production had increased despite cases of oil theft and illegal refining sites in the Niger Delta.
In December, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited expressed plans to produce two million barrels of crude oil per day in 2024.
NNPCL said this would significantly boost the 1.67 million barrels of oil and condensates it claimed to be producing at that time, saying it would enable Nigeria to meet the 2mbpd target set by OPEC.
Chairperson of the NNPCL Board, Mr Pius Akinyelure, who made the disclosure, however, admitted that meeting such a target would require overhauling Nigeria’s security architecture to address pipeline vandalism and other mechanisms deployed in oil theft.