Nigeria's crude oil production hits 1.3 million BPD in February 2023

Nigeria’s average crude oil production witnessed an increased output in February 2023 with the production of 1,306,304.3 million barrels per day (BPD) according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

The production output in February reveals a 3.8 percent increase when compared with the figure recorded in January 2023 which was 1,258,150 BPD.

Further analysis of the data also showed that although the volume of crude oil produced during the period was 1,306,304 BPD, the total volume of production output was increased to 1,547,719 BPD, when the blended condensates of 51,664 BPD, and unblended condensates of 189,751 BPD, were added.

The increasing crude oil production comes as good news to the country’s oil sector as Nigeria has been trying to meet its OPEC quota in oil production for some months.

Nigeria’s production share by OPEC has been set at 1.8 million BPD but the country has over time, fallen short of delivering this volume of production due to the myriad of challenges facing the oil sector.

After failing to meet this production target, Nigeria lost its place to Angola and Lybia as Africa’s top crude oil producer for two consecutive months, a position it later regained in November 2022 when production increased.

Between January and November 2022, Nigeria’s crude oil production shortfall was 6.9 million BPD.

The shortfall has been fingered on the activities of oil thieves and pipeline vandals. However, another update from the upstream regulator has linked some of the losses in the oil and gas sector to poor measurement systems.