– 42m barrels of crude produced in the month, says NUPRC
Gift Ekwueme
Lagos — Nigeria’s crude oil production rose to 1.351 million barrels per day, mbd, in October 2023, up from 1.347mbd in September.
Although Nigeria has seen some production increase in the past few months, its output remains well below its Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC’s, production quota.
Data released by OPEC in its latest Monthly Oil Market Report for November 2023 showed that with Nigeria’s crude oil production of 1.347mbd in September 2023, the country had the highest output in Africa, and by sustaining the rise in output in October, Nigeria retained its position as Africa’s largest crude oil producer.
As contained in the Monthly Oil Market Report, which draws data from secondary sources, Nigeria’s output surpassed the volumes produced by Libya and Angola.
Angola produced 1.147mbd in October; Libya 1.188mbd; and Algeria 961,000 barrels per day, bpd.
According to the OPEC, its 13 member-nations produced a total 27.90 mbd in October. It said crude oil output increased mainly in Angola, Iran and Nigeria, while production in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait decreased.
Meanwhile, the just-released monthly oil production report by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, disclosed that the country produced a total of 42 million barrels of crude oil in October 2023.
This implies about 1.5 million barrels increase from the 40.4 million recorded in September.
The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, had earlier said the country was hopeful of producing 1.9 million barrels of crude oil per day before the end of the year.
“Before now, due to oil theft activities in the Niger Delta region, oil production dropped to about one million barrels per day.
“But with the Federal Government’s actions and the onslaught of the combined military against oil thieves, the production stands at 1.7 million barrels per day currently. We are hoping that at the end of this year, we will reach about 1.9 million barrels per day,” he stated.
