Group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mele Kyari has expressed optimism that the country’s oil output will hit 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of this year.
Nigeria recently lost it’s spot as Africa’s biggest oil producer to Libya after it’s production dropped to 1.35 million barrels per day by 45,000 bpd in October from about 1.40 million bpd in September.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday, Kyari said oil output would reach 1.8 million barrels a day by December and could easily hit 2 million barrels when condensate — a light form of oil — is included in the total.
“It is very obvious that by the close of the year we would get back to the 1.7-1.8m barrels per day from crude only. As you may be aware, when we mention these figures, I am talking about crude oil only,” he said.
“We do produce condensate and when we combine this, we can easily hit the 2.0 million at the end of the year.
“The fact is very clear, during the COVID-19, we shut down some of these wells and they naturally don’t get back when you want them to and how you want them.
“That is what we are trying to do because we do have some challenges around the facilities and these are being taken care of. There is enormous work and intervention going on that will get us back before the end of the year.”
Kyari, however, said that OPEC+ — consisting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies — would face challenges to quickly pump more oil if a decision was taken to do so.
He said that “may not be very, very realisable” as the finance needed to boost oil production was lacking.
“I’m not sure it’ll be possible to fill the gap” quickly, partly due to a lack of financing for investment in oil fields,” he added.
“Even if we were to move, it probably could be a bit difficult to do that.”
Earlier this month, OPEC+ decided to stick to plans to increase the global oil supply by 400,000 bpd by December but Nigeria has continued to perform below the OPEC quota.
