*Says Nigeria targets 2.2mb/d
*Egina to reach 150,000bpd this month
OpeOluwani Akintayo
12 January 2019, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has quoted a lesser figure than what was stated in the country’s 2019 budget for national crude oil production.
A report by Reuters on Thursday quoted the minister as saying Nigeria aimed to produce 2.2 million barrels in 2019.
The figure quoted by Kachikwu is 100,000 barrels per day lesser than the 2.3mb/d quoted by President Muhammadu Buhari in the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly in December.
Buhari had said the country banks on oil price at $60 per barrel and production of 2.3mb/d as part of funds to finance the budget.
International oil benchmark, Brent hovered around $53p/d on Friday.
Mr. Kachikwu also said Nigeria now produces 1.78mb/d.
Speaking in Abuja, the minister also said the nation was expecting a boost in output from the newly-launched Egina oilfield, which is expected to reach 150,000 bpd by the end of the month.
Last week, Total, said it had started production from the Egina oilfield located 150 kilometres off the coast of Nigeria at 1,600 metres of water depths.
The field would record 200,000b/d at full production, representing around 10 percent of Nigeria’s production.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and its partners agreed to cut production by 1.2mb/d starting from this month – 800, 000b/d for OPEC, and 400, 000b/d for non-OPEC producers cooperating with OPEC to stabilise oil prices.
With Nigeria’s production at 2.3mb/d as stated by President Buhari or 2.2mb/d as claimed by Kachikwu, experts still worry that OPEC’s quota for Nigeria would not allow the country export more than 1.7mb/d, a worry equally shared by the minister.
“The work that we have at the ministry is to determine what component of that 150,000 barrels is pure crude and what is condensate. If it is pure crude it raises certain other implications in terms of the OPEC quota. If it is condensate then obviously we smile,” Kachikwu said in Abuja.
