Nigeria now produces 1.59 million barrels of oil per day – NNPC

• Nigeria now produces 1.59 million barrels of oil per day
• Crude oil theft: Nigeria set to lose $23 billion in 2023
• Crude oil theft’s recent impact on revenue

According to Bala Wunti, the Chief Upstream Investment Officer at NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Nigeria produced 1.59 million barrels of oil per day as of December 6.

In Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state, during the ongoing 11th Practical Nigerian Content event, he revealed this on Tuesday, December 6.

Wunti said that the country’s oil production output has increased as a result of government action during the problem of oil theft. He continued by saying that the government is adopting the three tactics of detection, deterrence, and proper response to address the problems. As he said:

“We have security agencies in which the Navy, the police, and everyone within that space were involved. The second is the regulators’ angle. At this stage, all regulators are made to fully be part of the efforts. The third is the operators’ angle. And, of course, all operators were involved. The fourth angle is the community angle in which all impacted communities have to be brought under the umbrella of a structured arrangement in the collective effort against crude oil theft. As of today, oil production is at 1.59 million barrels per day.”

READ MORE: Crude oil theft: Nigeria set to lose $23 billion in 2023 – NSA

There is currently no data that supports Wunti’s assertion. However, estimates of the nation’s oil production output will be revealed throughout the month by data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC’s) monthly oil market report (MOMR).

However, it is noteworthy that, according to information from the NUPRC, Nigeria produced 1,014,485 barrels of crude oil per day as of October 2022. Nigerian production in October averaged over 1 million barrels per day for the first time since July 2022, when it was 1,083,899 barrels per day.

Crude oil theft: Nigeria set to lose $23 billion in 2023

RNN previously reported that on Tuesday, December 6, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno, issued a warning that if the country’s crude oil theft problem continues, the Federal Government might lose as much as $23 billion by 2023.

While launching a special 11-person investigation team to stop crude oil theft in the nation, he made this statement.
The cost of crude oil theft, according to a Chatham House analysis mentioned in this study, was projected to range from $3 billion to $8 billion annually as of 2015. This demonstrates that there are more perpetrators of crude oil theft today than there were in 2015.

Crude oil theft’s recent impact on revenue

Nigeria loses at least 700,000 barrels of crude oil to theft every day, according to Timipre Sylva, the secretary of state for petroleum resources, who was speaking to graduates at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) graduation ceremony in October 2022. He stated:

“Oil theft is thought to have cost the nation 700,000 barrels of crude oil every day. The resultant negative effects include a decrease in crude oil production and a decrease in national income.

According to Umar I. Ajiya, the chief financial officer (CFO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, sideline production, and pipeline vandalism cost Nigeria $150 million a day in income.

Nigeria can afford an annual social security bill of N1.8 trillion if crude oil theft leakages are stopped, according to a November 2022 policy paper written by Nigerian economist Kingsley Moghalu.

Moghalu estimates that crude oil theft costs Nigeria roughly $700 million each month, or $8.4 billion annually. According to research on the oil and gas sector from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), between 2016 and 2020, Nigeria lost 272 million barrels to theft and sabotage.