According to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the total oil output in January 2023 was 39 million barrels, the total output was 36.5 million barrels in February and 39.3 million barrels was produced in March, this giving a total output of 114.8 million.
The NUPRC data, however, showed that when condensate is added to the total output figures, Nigeria’s total production for the period increased to 136.6 million barrels in the first three months of 2023.
The total monthly output after the addition of condensates increased to 46.3 million barrels in January, 43.3 million barrels in February and 47 million barrels in March 2023.
Recall the ₦20.5 trillion 2023 budget was based on a projection of 1.69 million barrels per day (BPD) of oil production (inclusive of condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day) while the OPEC quota for Nigeria was pegged at 1.8 million BPD.
Although the total oil output has been fluctuating for some time since last year, the production figures from Q1, 2023 however, increased significantly thus hitting 75.6 per cent of the 1.69 million BPD target set by the FG in the 2023 budget.
The total production volume expected during the period is 152 million barrels while 114.8 million barrels was achieved in Q1, 2023.
When compared to OPEC’s 1.8 million BPD quota set for Nigeria, the 114.8 million barrels fell short of the 162 million barrels expected.
An increase in Nigeria’s oil production output has been linked to the improvements in securing and maintaining some of the country’s oil production terminals.
Some of the issues plaguing the country’s oil industry like theft, bad maintenance culture etc, have been tackled recently by the combined forces of the FG and the security agencies.
This has resulted in improved output from terminals like Forcados, which is responsible for the production of 19.4 million barrels in Q1, 2023. In addition, Excravos terminal produced a total of 13 million barrels during the period.
Qua Iboe also produced 13 million barrels in the first quarter of the year, while Bonny also improved with the production of 6.9 million barrels during the period.