The Federal Government has projected an oil output of 1.8 million barrels per day by the end of May 2023, to meet up the crude oil production quota of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, disclosed this in a statement by his Senior Adviser on Media and Communications, Horatius Egua.
This is coming after OPEC agreed to maintain its production cut among member countries to maintain market stability.
The minister was quoted to have said the federal government would continue to improve security along the tracks of the major crude oil pipelines and block every leakage through which oil was stolen by thieves and pipeline vandals.
He said the inability of Nigeria to meet the current OPEC quota was not as a result of lack of production capacity on the part of crude oil producers, but attributed it to the refusal of a lot of producers to inject into the pipelines as they were losing a lot of their production when they inject into the pipelines.
“Once we are able to build enough confidence in the security of the pipelines, they (producers) will then be able to inject into the pipelines once again.
“And once that happens, we will be able to meet up with our OPEC quotas. That is where we are going and the early signals are there that we are making very good progress,” the statement quoted the minister to have said.
The minister further pointed out that with the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, as well as the planned repair of the Kaduna refinery, and the coming on stream of the Dangote Refinery, Nigeria was sure of guaranteed crude oil production that would ease the incessant fuel crisis faced across the country.
According to him, “Between Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, we have over 410,000 barrels and if you have all that refined in-country, that will be at least half of our consumption.
“And with Dangote refinery, which is expected to come on stream by first quarter next year, we are expecting that we will actually be exiting the importation of petroleum products by third quarter of next year.
“But I believe that even before the third quarter of next year, we should be able to exit the importation of refined products.”
Sylva also called on Nigerians to brace up for more oil finds, particularly with the discovery of crude oil in Kolmani, a border town between Bauchi and Gombe states, pointing out that over the years, only the Niger Delta region had been explored for oil despite potential in other regions of the country.