The Federal Government (FG) established a goal to reach the 1.8 million barrels per day oil production quota set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) by May 2023. (mbpd).
Despite its inability to generate more than 1.2 million barrels of crude oil per day, this is happening.
Chief Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, revealed the information in a statement released by his media assistant in Abuja.
He asserted that Nigeria’s inability to achieve the existing OPEC quota was due to oil theft rather than a lack of capability.
Since they were losing a lot of their productions when they injected into the pipelines, several producers decided against doing so.
“Once they (producers) are able to inject into the pipelines provided again, we will be able to satisfy our OPEC quotas once we are able to build enough confidence in the security of the pipelines. We are moving in that direction, and the early signs indicate that we are doing well,” he remarked.
He insisted that the nation produces more than a million barrels of crude oil per day, stating that “after we have developed enough confidence on the pipes and all the producers begin to inject into the pipelines that have been secured, we will be able to produce swiftly to satisfy our OPEC quota.” That’s actually our strategy, and I’m hopeful we can fulfill our OPEC quota before this administration ends.
He did promise that the government would keep up its efforts to tighten security along the routes of the main crude oil pipelines and stop any leaks that would allow oil thieves and pipeline vandals to steal crude oil.
Additionally, he added that Nigeria was confident in a guaranteed crude production that will ease the country’s ongoing fuel crisis thanks to the ongoing rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, as well as the planned repair of the Kaduna refinery and the startup of the Dangote Refinery.
We have over 410,000 barrels between Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna, which if all of them were refined domestically would account for at least half of our consumption. With the Dangote refinery expected to start operating in the first quarter of 2019, we anticipate that we will actually stop importing petroleum products by the third quarter of that year.
But I think we should be able to stop importing refined goods even before the third quarter of the following year.
The minister said Nigeria should prepare for additional oil discoveries in response to the discovery of crude oil in Kolmani, a border town between the states of Bauchi and Gombe. He added that despite potential elsewhere in the nation, only the Niger Delta region has been explored for oil.
Nigeria is a tremendously productive territory, he said. Only the Niger Delta has been identified as an oil-bearing region thus far. However, there are other other basins in Nigeria, including the Dahomey, Sokoto, Gongola, and Benue troughs. There are many basins that have not yet been tested. We want to learn how to find oil, particularly now that the world is in transition.
