The Federal Government declared on Tuesday that Nigeria would meet and exceed the 2024 crude oil budget benchmark of 1.7 million barrels per barrel despite a marginal decline in oil output in November 2023.
The Punch reported that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission released new data on Tuesday, which indicated that the country’s crude oil production fell to 1.25 million barrels per day last month, excluding condensates.
Nigeria produced 1.351 million barrels of crude oil per day (excluding condensates) in October, up slightly from the 1.346 million barrels per day it produced in September of this year and above the 1.181 million barrels per day recorded in August prior.
However, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, argued that the country would reach its oil production target of 1.7 million barrels per day in the 2024 budget.
Speaking at a Chevron Nigeria Plc-organized stakeholder interactive session on Creating Value and Enabling Investments in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Sector, Lokpobiri added that the country has the capacity to raise crude oil production to 2 million barrels per day.
According to a statement released in Abuja by his media assistant, Nneamaka Okafor, he stated that the upstream sector’s performance will dictate that of the midstream and downstream sectors.
“In 2024 and beyond, we as a government are prepared to maintain our level of engagement with stakeholders in order to jointly guarantee that we meet local demand in addition to the 1.7 million barrels per day required to meet our budget.”
The minister described the growth trajectory of the sector, which began at roughly one million barrels per day and increased steadily to 1.4 million barrels per day since the current administration took office.
He emphasized the government’s dedication to fostering an environment that allows stakeholders to prosper while expressing his desire to keep things moving in the right direction.
He gave stakeholders confidence that the government was making the required investments and was committed to creating the best possible environment for Independent Oil Companies as well as International Oil Companies.
“Our country is capable of producing over 2 million barrels per day. We already know what the industry’s problems are, and we’re addressing them. “I know that 2024 will be a much better year, and I would replicate this program with all the IOCs and independents so that we can make the sector work for all of us and Nigerians at large.
The minister also emphasized ongoing initiatives to maintain modular refineries’ functionality and restore refineries in order to increase the nation’s capacity for refining.
