Uche Cecil Izuora
Nigeria is sustainably driving crude oil production which climbed above its Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota for the fifth consecutive month in September.
Daily crude oil and condensate output rose by 2.34 per cent to 1.717 million barrels.
Data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) also showed that the country’s combined crude oil and condensate production peaked at 1.84 million barrels per day on its highest-producing day in September, while output on the lowest-producing day stood at 1.68 million barrels.
Nigeria produced an average of 1.53 million barrels of crude oil per day in September, excluding condensates.
The figure represented 102 per cent of the 1.5 million barrels per day production quota assigned to Nigeria by OPEC, indicating that the country exceeded its target by 30,000 barrels per day.
The September performance extended Nigeria’s run of meeting its OPEC crude oil production quota to five consecutive months, following average daily output of 1.53 million barrels in May, 1.55 million barrels in June, 1.51 million barrels in July and 1.5 million barrels in August.
The latest figures indicate that Nigeria has maintained production at or above its OPEC allocation despite persistent challenges that have historically affected the country’s oil industry, including crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, operational disruptions and difficulties evacuating crude from producing fields.
The commission attributed the improved performance largely to stable production operations across most producing assets and the absence of major pipeline outages during the period.
It said the operational stability helped improve production uptime and crude evacuation efficiency, supporting the increase recorded in September.