Daily oil production in Nigeria rose by 14 percent in September to 1.346 million barrels compared to 1.181 million barrels produced in August, latest data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, has revealed.
Despite the improvement, however, oil production remained significantly lower than the 2023 Budget benchmark of 1.69 million barrels per day and the OPEC quota of 1.7 million barrels per day.
A closer look at the oil production report showed that added to condensate oil, total daily average production last month was 1.57 million barrels. Condensate oil production fell by 3.3 percent to 225,754 barrels per day from 233,531 million barrels per day recorded in August.
The Federal Government has however reiterated its commitment to creae the enabling environment in the upstream sector attract more investment and boost oil production.
Speaking at a consultative forum in Abuja, the Commission Chief Executive, NUPRC, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe noted that so far 12 new regulations have been developed, approved and gazzetted by the Federal Government.
He stated: “Our commitment to creating an enabling environment for growth and investments in the Upstream Oil and gas industry in Nigeria has steered our focus towards working with all stakeholders. This can be seen in our efforts to ensure that regulations and key policies necessitated by the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, are developed and gazetted timely so that the industry operators can align their operations with the PIA provisions as quickly as possible”.
He explained that more regulations were being introduced in line “with the recent happenings in the oil and gas industry and in conformity with the provisions of the PIA as they form part of the expanding framework of key regulatory tools for the implementation of the PIA.
“In furtherance of the above and compliance with Section 216(4)(g) of the PIA 2021, the Commission is holding yet another Stakeholder Consultation beginning today prior to finalizing the following draft regulations: Draft Upstream Commercial Operations Regulations; Draft Upstream Petroleum Code of Conduct & Compliance Regulations; Draft Upstream Petroleum Development Contract Administration Regulations; Draft Upstream Revocation of Licences and Lease Regulations; Draft Petroleum Assignment of Interest Regulations;
Draft Nigerian Upstream Petroleum (Administrative Harmonization) Regulations; and Draft Amendment to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Host Communities Development Regulations 2022”.
