Crude Production Increased by 177,000bpd in November, NUPRC Reveals

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

New data released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) have shown that crude production increased by 177,000 barrels per day in November.

By implication, this increased the total production in November to 1.185 million barrels per day as opposed to the 1.014 million bpd drilled in October this year.

The figures were obtained yesterday from the official website of the NUPRC, an institution responsible for the technical and commercial regulation of upstream petroleum operations in the country.

When condensates usually excluded from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota calculations are included, the latest data revealed that the total oil drilled for the month of November was 1.41 million barrels per day.

While blended condensates stood at 40,691 barrels per day during the month under review, unblended condensates were 187,799 barrels per day, raising the entire daily production to a total of 1,414,093 barrels per day.

The data, however, differed from the figures released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), which put Nigeria’s total daily production at 1.59 million barrels per day. 

In separate remarks in Uyo and on Arise News Channel recently, Chief Upstream Investment Officer, NNPC’s Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Bala Wunti said crude production had been ramped up to a high of 1.59 million barrels per day.

He credited the improvement to the NNPC and its security and host communities’ partners who he said had successfully destroyed 638 out of the 763 illegal refineries recently discovered.

The upstream investment officer explained that at least 70 percent of illegal refineries had been demobilised.

For months, Nigeria has slipped from being Africa’s number one oil producer to number four, behind Angola, Libya and Algeria.

Before hitting 1.014 million barrels per day in October, production had fallen to 972,394 barrels per day in August while September’s production was pegged at 937,766 barrels per day, two multi-decade lows.

In October and November, however, Nigeria’s outputs were not enough to give respite to the significantly oil-dependent country’s economy as crude production was still a far cry from the OPEC allocation of 1.826 million barrels per day in August and September as well as 1.830 million barrels per day in October, before declining to 1.74 million barrels per day in November.

In the last few months, Nigeria has been producing oil at record low quantity, losing as much as 800,000 bpd due to actual theft and opportunity cost as a result of shutdowns.

The NUPRC figures showed that most of the production for November came from Bonny terminal, with 1.574 million barrels; Brass  produced 404,000 barrels; Qua Iboe, 4.486 million barrels and Forcados, 6.255 million barrels for the month.

At the Escravos terminal, production was 4.666 million barrels, 2.876 million barrels in Odudu, Tulja Okwubome produced 1.155 million barrels while Okoro, formerly Ima terminal, produced 234,267 barrels.

Otakikpo, Antan and Okono produced 304,522 barrels, 411,956 barrels and 228,220 barrels respectively, while Okono , Yoho and Okwori produced 900,264 barrels, 77,968 barrels and 289,852 barrels in that order.

Bonga ramped up drilling from 1.892 million barrels to 2.129 million barrels, Erha stayed at 1.69 million barrels while Usan produced 1.27 million barrels for the month. Egina was 3.4 million barrels in the month of November.

Similarly, Abo and Pennington were 350,193 barrels and 335,177 barrels respectively as Ugo-Ocha, Sea Eagle and  Anyala Madu clocked in 619,431 barrels, 703,513 barrels and 1.248 million barrels for the month.

However, Agbami, Akpọ and Ajakpa produced 3.119 million barrels, 2.195 million barrels and 16,000 barrels respectively, all condensates.