In November 2022, Nigeria’s average daily crude oil production increased marginally to 1.41 million barrels.
This is supported by information from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission released yesterday 8th December 2022.
The information, which can be found on the commission’s website, reveals that crude oil volumes for November 2022 were 1,185,604, while blended condensates were at 40,691 and unblended condensates were at 187,799, totaling 1,414,093.
A total of 1,230,372 barrels per day of crude oil, blended condensates, and unblended condensates were produced in October 2022, for a total volume of 1,014,485, 28,232, and 187,655 respectively.
The NUPRC data reveals that Nigeria is improving its capacity to produce crude oil, albeit slowly. And this might be as a result of government initiatives to stop oil theft.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and security personnel are beginning an offensive against people who steal crude oil, according to Bala Wunti, the Chief Upstream Investment Officer at the NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), who made the announcement to news anchors on Arise TV earlier this week. He claimed that some of these offenders are already being tried in a court of law.
He claims that out of the 763 illicit refineries, 638 have been successfully eliminated by the NNPC and its security partners. Wunti claimed that although work is still being done to find new illegal refineries, 70% of illegal refineries have already been rendered inoperable. On December 6, during the 11th Practical Nigerian Content Forum, Bala Wunti said that Nigeria was producing 1.59 million barrels of oil per day as of that day.
The question everyone seems to be asking is, will the NNPC now have the ability to send money to the federation account as the crude oil production rises? The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published a study on foreign trade in December 2022 that revealed the NNPC earned N16 trillion between January and September 2022 but did not transfer any of it to the federation account.
The World Bank recently advised that some modifications be implemented in order for the country’s oil and gas sector to benefit:
Safeguard the country’s oil and gas assets by amending the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to specify that oil and gas assets will belong to the federation and the ownership will be transferred to the NNPC Limited or any other party upon payment of the full market value.
Require that oil and gas fiscal revenues be transferred first to the federation account by amending the PIA to require the government revenues related to the oil and gas contracts to be paid to the federation account.
Ensure that all oil and gas fiscal payments be made in cash by amending the PIA to remove references to tax oil, royalty oil, and production-sharing contracts, and retain only profit-sharing contracts, thereby ending all in-kind fiscal payments.
