Industry sources revealed shocking new figures of Nigeria’s daily oil output yesterday, as KTH.ng was exclusively informed that Nigeria’s production has crashed by nearly 500,000 barrels per day.
Citing growing vandalism around the central production corridor of Bayelsa and parts of Rivers state, our sources said that the latest figures obtained over the weekend show that daily production has plunged from about 1,850,000 bpd to a little above 1,350,000bpd.
The problematic Bayelsa/Rivers corridor has been source of concern for the industry, which before this setback, hoped to ramp up production to over 2 million bpd, having just marked a 1,850,000 bpd milestone.
Security agencies are said to be worried about the uptick in the activity of vandals so soon after multi-billion pipeline surveillance contracts, which were given mainly to ex-Militant leaders, were renewed.
“As we speak the main gas trunk line which sends gas to the Bonny Oil and Gas Terminal, BOGT, is under severe threat, but we are working night and day to ensure that nothing untoward happens there, because that will be a major disaster, “ our source disclosed.
Knowledgeable insiders explained that the main gas trunk line feeding the Bonny NLNG terminal is the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), which transports oil and gas from the eastern and central Niger Delta to the BOGT, a major hub for oil and gas exports in Nigeria.
The NTCL, they disclosed, is a key part of the Bonny oil pipeline system, transporting oil, water, and associated gas. The Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) is another major trunkline within the Bonny oil pipeline system. The NLNG terminal receives gas from various fields, including onshore fields like Gbaran Ubie, Soku, and Bonny, as well as offshore fields like Bonga and EA.
Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) operates the LNG terminal in Bonny, processing gas into Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) for export. The Bonga-Bonny OGGS also contributes to the gas supply for the NLNG terminal along with the Rumuji Node-Bonny gas pipeline.
Nigeria’s current oil production averages approximately 1.85 million barrels per day. But the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, insists that Nigeria’s technical potential for crude oil production is way above 2.24 million barrels per day.
The commission attributes the gap between current production and technical potential to factors such as vandalism, non-adoption of advanced oil recovery technologies, high costs, entry barriers, and the non-optimization of production processes.
The Nigerian government aims to boost oil production by 1 million bpd by December 2026, with a target of boosting daily production to 2.7 million barrels of crude and condensate by 2027.