There seems to be hope in the offing for Nigeria as its dwindling daily oil production turned the corner in April, rising marginally from 1.23 million barrels per day in March to 1.28 mbpd, according to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report for May, said Nigeria’s oil production added 50,000 barrels daily in the last month after it fell in recent times during the month before.

The nation’s crude production fell from 1.32 million barrels per day in February to 1.23 million barrels per day in March, according to a report issued by the organization on Tuesday. Production dropped from 1.427 mbpd in January to 1.322 mbpd, according to primary sources. The continuous drop in production came amid stakeholders’ concerns over the loss of revenue due to the failure of the government to ramp up production.

Recently, the Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, Wole Ogunsanya, said the country was losing a lot of revenue daily due to its inability to tackle dwindling oil production. According to Ogunsanya, if Nigeria could retain between 60 and 70 per cent of the oil and gas value chain in the country, it stands a better chance of being among the top 20 economies in the world. He pointed out that the country was underproducing to the tune of at least 500,000 barrels per day, which was a huge loss to the country.

But the Federal Government said the drop in Nigeria’s crude oil production was due to issues encountered on the Trans Niger Pipeline, coupled with maintenance activities carried out by some oil companies operating across the country. It, however, stated that efforts were on to fix the pipeline, adding that this would enable the country to produce up to 1.7 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensates.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, claimed that the drop in production was due to issues encountered on the Trans Niger Pipeline. The minister clarified that measures are being taken to address the situation to not only restore production to previous levels but to also increase it. The minister is also pleased to announce that the issues have been adequately addressed, and production is expected to return to its previous levels in the coming days.

At a meeting with stakeholders in Lagos recently, Lokpobiri emphasised that idle oil wells and licences would be revoked and handed over to individuals with proven capacity to explore.