Nigeria’s crude oil production climbed to a two-month high in April, signaling modest recovery efforts in Africa’s largest oil producer, but remained below the country’s official quota set by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Data released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) showed the country pumped an average of 1.486 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up from 1.401 million bpd recorded in March.
The April figure represents Nigeria’s best performance since February but still falls short of the 1.5 million bpd quota allocated by OPEC for the same period. “The average crude oil production was 99 percent of the OPEC quota (1.5 mbpd),” NUPRC stated.
When including blended and unblended condensates, Nigeria’s total output in April reached 1.683 million bpd, according to the upstream regulator. However, OPEC does not include condensates in its quotas for member states.
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The NUPRC report detailed that daily production in April ranged between 1.60 million bpd at its lowest and 1.73 million bpd at its peak. The daily average comprised 1,485,700 bpd of crude oil and 197,607 bpd of condensate, totaling 1,683,307 barrels per day.
Nigeria’s production has fluctuated through the first four months of the year, with output at 1.539 million bpd in January, 1.465 million bpd in February, before dropping to 1.401 million bpd in March and recovering to 1.486 million bpd in April.
In February, Olu Verheijen, President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Energy, announced that Nigeria has set an ambitious target of boosting daily production to 2.7 million bpd of combined crude and condensate by 2027.
“The OPEC quota does not include condensate. The target we’ve set for ourselves is a combination of condensate and crude,” she clarified in an interview. This announcement followed OPEC’s affirmation that it will continue to monitor member countries’ adherence to their crude oil production quotas.
