Nigeria’s target of 2.06 million bpd of crude oil production target in 2025 is achievable, says the Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobori.

Mr Lokpobori said this on Thursday night in Abuja at the Nigeria Petroleum Industry Leadership Discourse.

“It is true that the 2025 budget is predicated on 2.06 million barrels a day, and I want to assure Nigerians that this is doable. Nigeria has been doing 1.5 million barrels of production per day,” he said. “For now, we are operating at about 1.75 million barrels per day.’’

The minister said for over a decade, there has been no investment in the sector, adding that things are now changing for the better.

“We have changed the perception about Nigeria. So, investments are coming in. We want to improve the security situation in the Niger Delta. And I want to use the opportunity to thank our military.

“Nigerian military, the paramilitary, and civilian contractors. The combined effort of these stakeholders have led to less infractions in our pipelines, less thefts, less pipeline vandalisation,’’ he said.

Mr Lokpobori said the federal government has also carried out some reforms in the sector. He said President Bola Tinubu had provided strategic leadership for the oil and gas industry.

“We have taken care of the issue of bureaucracy. Before now, you must know the minister or somebody who knows the minister before your documents are signed.

”Right now, you do not need to know me before your documents are signed. Once I get the recommendation from NUPRC, statutorily, no documents stay on my table for more than 24 hours,’’ he said.

Mr Lokpobiri said the government had also addressed the issue of inefficiency by deploying technology.

“Before now, everything was done manually. We could not monitor what was happening in our terminals in real-time. We could not monitor when payments will be given in real-time.

“Technology has also been deployed to ensure that we reduce the corruption that has existed in that sector in the past,’’ he said.

Nigeria’s oil production, including condensate, rose by four per cent month-on-month to 1.737 million barrels per day in January compared to 1.667 million bpd recorded in December 2024.

On a year-on-year basis, output saw a 5.7 per cent increase, reaching 1.737 million bpd in January 2025, compared to 1.643 million bpd in the same period of 2024, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

In its latest Crude Oil and Condensate Production report, the NUPRC stated that January’s lowest and peak production was 1.66 million bopd and 1.79 million bopd, respectively.

The average crude oil production was 103 per cent of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries quota (1.5 mbpd).

NUPRC said this indicates that Nigeria successfully met the OPEC production quota of 1.5 million barrels per day.

(NAN)