The Federal Government will renegotiate the country’s oil production quota in the ongoing Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) cuts by November.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, disclosed this in a live interview with Bloomberg.
OPEC and its non-OPEC partner, Russia- also known as the OPEC+ are currently cutting oil exports to boost prices.
According to him, Nigeria was working towards ramping up crude oil production by about 200,000 to 300,000 barrels per day, latest by October, and would thereafter, push for an increased quota at the OPEC+ meeting scheduled to hold in November.
“OPEC understands that it is not that Nigeria does not have what it takes to produce more crude, but the challenge has been in terms of security, and everything we are doing to combat insecurity in the Niger Delta is working. OPEC has now given us a target to increase production between now and October, and that figure is going to be worked with.
“I think it is very practical to get to between 1.5/1.6 by October,” Kyari said.
He further noted that Nigeria’s crude oil production, including condensates, was around 1.3 million barrels per day.
Kyari pointed out that the current production is “Nowhere near Nigeria’s capacity. We have a clear case when during the COVID, we had the capacity to do close to 2.1mb/d. So we know we have the capacity.”
Continuing, the NNPCL CEO said, “The issues are around the pipeline, and once we are able to resolve the challenges, then, we can produce higher.”
OPEC+ had reduced Nigeria’s quota from 1.742mb/d to about 1.38mb/d in early June due to low production. Kyari said FG was confident it would get an increased quota by November.
