Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, has expressed confidence that the country can achieve its 2025 crude oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day (BPD).
Lokpobiri made this statement at the Nigeria Petroleum Industry Leadership Discourse in Abuja, where he emphasized that the target is achievable given the industry’s current momentum.
Currently, Nigeria’s crude oil production stands at approximately 1.75 million BPD, with the industry having made an additional 250,000 barrels incrementally.
Lokpobiri attributed this growth to improved security in the Niger Delta region and the government’s efforts to address bureaucracy and inefficiency in the sector.
“Nigerian military, the paramilitary, and civilian contractors. The combined effort of these stakeholders have led to less infractions in our pipelines, less thefts, less pipeline vandalisation,’’ he said.
The government has implemented reforms, including the deployment of technology to reduce corruption and improve real-time monitoring of terminals and payments.
President Bula Tinubu has also provided strategic leadership for the oil and gas industry.
Nigeria’s oil production has seen a significant increase, with January 2025 production rising by 4% to 1.737 million BPD compared to December 2024. This growth is attributed to the completion of major divestments, with over 50% of Nigeria’s oil production now operated by indigenous companies.
The Chairman of Heirs Energies Limited, Mr Tony Elumelu, said the oil industry has been able to turn around the season of decline to that of growth.
Elumelu said the country ‘s increase in crude oil production to 1.7 million barrels per day in January attests to this growth.
He said that with the completion of the major divestments that have just come through, over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s oil production was now operated by indigenous companies.
“For a lot of people, there is trepidation that we can deliver. There is also optimism that we can deliver.
“Heirs Energies has been one of those companies that has stood strongly for growth, as demonstrated by the growth we have achieved in our company by doubling production since inception,’’ he said.
Elumelu said that the leadership discourse was informed by the need to chart a way forward for the company, as well as the country.
“As we embark on our second leadership forum, we bring our entire leadership to discuss the way forward for our company.
“We thought that being a child of the Nigerian petroleum industry, we needed to bring all the parties together to discuss the growth of the industry,.
“In that light, we felt it was important to bring together the industries to start talking about the growth.
“Now that it is us, the indigenous companies that are in control of a larger proportion of the production, we have to power it, we have to own the challenge, and we have to deliver to the Nigerian people,’’ Elumelu said.
Other industry stakeholders, including Ademola Adeyemi-Boro, Chairman of the OPEC Board of Governors, and Gbenga Komolafe, CEO of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), also participated in the discourse.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
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