Hot Source•With project 1million barrels on course, Nigeria adds 300,000bpd in 10 months
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said yesterday that there were clear signs that Nigeria’s oil and gas industry had begun to rebound, with a significant rise in the number of active rigs in the sector, rising from eight in 2021 to 46 currently.
Besides, the upstream regulator stated that since the launch of its “Project 1 Million Barrels Per Day”, Nigeria had achieved an additional 300,000 barrels daily crude oil production. It said these were clear signals that things were looking up again in the sector.
Generally, an increase in Nigeria’s rig count signals a positive shift in upstream oil activity, often reflecting rising investor confidence and the gradual return of capital into exploration and production. A higher rig count typically means more drilling operations are underway, either to develop new wells or re-enter dormant ones.
“Project 1 million bpd” was launched in October last year by NUPRC under President Bola Tinubu, with the aim of ramping up the country’s crude oil output by one million barrels per day over 12 months to 24 months.
It focused on reactivating idle wells, revitalising brownfield assets, modernising infrastructure, tightening security, improving regulations, and attracting fresh investment to close the gap between current output of around 1.7 million bpd and the targeted 2.6 million bpd to 2.8 million bpd by late 2026.
Speaking in Abuja at the opening of a media workshop for members of the Energy Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ECAN), led by John Ofikhenua, NUPRC’s Chief Executive (CCE), Gbenga Komolafe, stated that although the sector was not where it wanted to be, it had made significant progress in the last few years.
With less than four years since its establishment, Komolafe stated that the commission hit the ground running since he took over, because the NUPRC team had clarity as to what to do and how to go about it.
Stressing that the commission had attained “high-impact achievements”, he stressed that NUPRC came around a period that oil production declined to one million barrels daily, but had now hit a high of over 1.7 million bpd.
Komolafe said, “I have worked with a very resilient team that is committed to drive, to optimise, and valorise our hydrocarbon resources. The rig count today is 46. And we’re not stopping there. But, of course, it’s a leap, very geometric, but we are moving higher. The signs are positive. The feedback in the industry has been very encouraging.”
As an industry regulator, Komolafe stated that there were two ways to achieve improved federation revenue, either to cut the unit cost of production or embark on incremental production.
He stated, “We say that the commission is usually called the business enabler. And when we say that, we are not talking like politicians. It’s not just a statutory responsibility, it’s in the law that we should do all things necessary to promote and attract investment.”
Komolafe emphasised, “We’ve taken a number of steps, including the last programme, we launched the project, which is the one million incremental barrels. That programme is an initiative to leverage the power of collaboration, to get all the other operators in the industry to collaborate, to leverage their capacity, to drive production. The initiative came as a result of our observation that the potential is there.
“One of the limiting factors was that everybody was confined to the existing compartment. So, as a regulator, mandated to do all things necessary to drive investment, we brought all of them together and charged that we needed to increase production by additional one million bpd.
“As of the time that programme was launched, and now, we’ve observed a positive data of about 300,000 barrels of oil per day. That is another achievement of which I think we are proud.”
At the event, which witnessed brilliant presentations from top officials of the commission, Komolafe explained that the president’s Executive Orders 40, 41, and 42, which had to do with various tax incentives, reform of local content law, and reduction of the contracting circle and the threshold, had helped the upward swing currently being experienced.
He thanked ECAN for their objective reportage of NUPRC, stating that over 200 million Nigerians look up to the commission to accelerate growth in the sector to ensure adequate revenue for the federation.
